Ravaillac, the murderer, took advantage of a traffic jam holding up the royal carriage. The coat of arms of France and Navarre and the words Henri IV and 14 May 1610 were inserted into the street. Nowadays the inn sign shows a crowned heart, and a stained-glass window inside depicts the attack.
On the forum stands the fontaine des Innocents where the cemetery of the Innocents used to be. It was created by the Protestant sculptor Jean Goujon.
At the east end of the forum an astrological column, called Médicis column, set against the rotunda of the Board of trade. It is the only vestige of the private mansion de Soissons, where Catherine de Médicis and the then princes of Condé lived. Before the Edict of Nantes Protestant worship was held there.
