Every design for Montrouge

Montrouge first appears in monastery records in 1194, and its name, 'red mountain', comes from the reddish earth of the area. Through the Middle Ages the hamlet was home to religious orders; in the 15th century its quarries supplied stone to rebuild Paris; by the late sixteenth century the plain had become a reserve for royal hunts, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was known for its windmills, all of them gone today. Industry arrived in 1925 with printing works, and the Papier d'Arménie is among the names tied to the town.

Montrouge lies just south of Paris, on the border with Val-de-Marne, and most of it was absorbed by the capital in 1860, when the annexed part became Petit-Montrouge in the 14th arrondissement. What remained stayed independent, gained a little land from Châtillon and Bagneux in 1875, and completed its Hôtel de Ville in 1883. Today it is one of the most densely populated places in Europe, served by Métro Lines 4 and 13, with the Parc Montsouris, the Catacombes de Paris and the Musée de la Libération de Paris just beyond its edge.

Grow up in Montrouge and its map fits in your pocket: a few dense streets, the Mairie, and Paris starting at the end of the road.