France, CELEBRATING THE OPENING OF LES HALLES, 1857, Medal, UNC; France, CELEBRATING THE OPENING OF LES HALLES, 1857 Medal, UNC, Copper, 77mm, 212.8g by Bovy. Em: Bee. OBV: Within a pearled border, an aerial view of Les Halles from the east, showing the 12 pavilions and the Bourse de Commerce dome at the opposite end. This is surmounted by two flying figures, Mercury and a female allegory of Plenty holding a ribbon banner proclaiming HALLES CENTRALES DE PARIS. In the exergue: POSE DE LA PREM. PIERRE MDCCCLI/ INAUGURATION MDCCCLVII/ BALTARD ET CALLET ARCHITECTES. Signed: A. BOVY, SC, below. Rx: A cartouche, surrounded by renderings of the escutcheon of Paris along with fish, fowl, garlands and a bull’s head, contains seven lines, as follows: PROJET PRIMITIF MDCCCXLV/ LE Cte DERAMBUTEAU PREFET/ SECOND PROJET MDCCCLI/ J J BERGER PREFET/ PROJET DEFINITIF EXECUTION/ MDCCCLIV MDCCCLVII/ LE Bon HAUSSMANN PREFET. Signed: BOVY at bottom, below bull’s head. Some stains and rim nicks. Slight scratch on rx in letters. Les Halles was the central wholesale produce and meat market of Paris where vegetables, meat, fish, and fowl were sold to restaurants and retail vendors. It was in the center of the city and was one of the outlets for the meat slaughtered at the huge abattoir at La Villette, which was a separate village but entered Paris as the 19th Arrondissement in 1860. Les Halles was in the First Arrondissement, in the heart of the modern city. It was designed by Victor Baltard, the architect who designed the buildings at La Villette in the iron and glass style of the Second Empire and opened in 1857. All of the complex save for the Bourse de Commerce was razed in 1971, to be replaced by a “soulless” underground shopping and transportation center with a sunken garden which itself has now been redone. The church of St. Eustache is at the north edge and the Pompidou Center for modern art is at the eastern edge. From the T.H.G Collection..