The Conciergerie began as a royal palace in the 1300s, its conical towers and Gothic façade rising from Île de la Cité, where Roman governors had built their fortress two millennia earlier. French kings abandoned it in 1370, and over time it became the seat of Parliament and residence of the concierge, a crown officer with judicial powers. That title stuck, even as the building's purpose darkened.

By the Revolution, it served as a prison. Marie Antoinette spent 76 days in a small, cold cell here before her execution, watched constantly and denied any news of her children. Marshal Rochambeau, the hero of Yorktown, barely escaped the guillotine from within these walls.

On the exterior, Paris's oldest clock has marked time since 1371, bearing the inscription: "He gives the hours, justice the laws."

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the building's transformation from palace to prison, exploring the Gothic hall where the king's men once gathered and the sobering chapel built where Marie Antoinette awaited her fate.