In the Latin Quarter, near the Jardin des Plantes, the Great Mosque of Paris brings together worship, architecture and public memory. Conceived after the First World War and built during the 1920s, it opened in 1926. Today it remains an active religious complex as well as a historic building, so visitors should recognize how its spaces are used.
The mosque’s official history connects the project to France’s recognition of Muslim soldiers who fought during the 1914–1918 war. The first stone was laid in 1922, and President Gaston Doumergue attended the inauguration on July 15, 1926. The site belonged to the City of Paris and had previously been associated with the Pitié hospital. These details place the mosque within the history of French Islam and the political memory of its period.
