Architecture
Paris Métro Entrance
Hector Guimard, 1900
Show the style
Art Nouveau · chronological order 10
Where to see it
Abbesses station
Paris · France
About 86 survive across the city. The one at Abbesses keeps its glass canopy.
A set of some 141 Art Nouveau métro entrances designed by Hector Guimard for the opening of the Paris underground in 1900, timed for the Universal Exhibition. They use cast iron moulded into plant forms (stems, flowers, curving leaves) and green enamelled signs with organic lettering. When taste turned after the war many were taken down; about 86 original Guimard entrances are still standing in Paris.