Place St Nicolas by angiebabe
This is where the passenger barges landing stage was located here on the river in front of this square. Passenger barges transported travellers and goods from Auxerre to Paris several times a week and interestingly apparently often included the young Napoleon Bonaparte who wouldve been travelling from Brienne to Paris and then later when he was older during his 'hundred day' attempt to regain power after his exile.The large building with the statue of Saint Nicolas, the patron saint of catholic bargemen and their assistants, seems to have existed since the 17th century and the polychrome statue form the 18th century.
The Saint-Loup parish's brotherhood of Saint Nicolas begged from travellers here until the disbandment by the Revolution.
The fountain that you see here was built in 1832 by an italian artist for a square elsewhere but transferred here in 1909.
The large restaurant that you also here in the square, before the Revolution, was the passenger barges' warehouse and offices with stables on the ground level for the horses that hauled the riverboats. The stables were converted into the neighbourhoods wash house for a period of time during the 19th century.
