Masons in Paris: a walk. Symbols, secrets and heritage

Paris choice Book, October 17, 2025

Are you looking for another way to research the city and get to know its history? This tour is dedicated to masonry in Paris, and its way is marked by museums, facades of buildings and cemeteries. This allows anyone to associate symbols with circumstantial places without excessive secrecy.

Visible traces of a lie in the capital

Our first halt is Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie at 16 rue Cadet in the 9th district. There are 18th century archives, jewelry, regalia and lodge decorations. This address besides recalls the historical roots of the masonry in Paris, in the heart of the social life of the district.

The Grand Orient de France, founded in 1773, is located at the same address. From time to time, visits are organised for cultural heritage events. However, access remains limited, which protects collections and rituals. In fact, this territory shows that the masonry in Paris is very lively and well documented.

Outside the museum, you can sometimes see circuses and coalmines on 19th-century facades. For example, Passage du Caire in the 2nd territory shows a love for Egypt, present since the late 18th century. These motives are not evidence of the existence of a lodge in this place, but alternatively a common imagination. Masonry in Paris can be read through resonance, not certainty.

“Caceration is reading the city with a quiet voice.”

Open-air symbols: what to see and how to interpret them

Often, a circus, a miner, an acacia branch, or an eye in a pyramid is used. These signs besides appear on steles, stained glass and allegories...

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