Command of Baron Haussmann, located at the corner of Boulevard Saint Michel and the Place Saint André des Arts, the polychrome fountain 26m high and 15m wide in 1860, it was originally intended to receive a statue of Napoleon 1 but it was erected in memory of a former chapel of Saint Michel de l' Ile de la Cité. If the profusion of statues affects the coherence of the whole, however, it has some merit. More than allegory of the victory of good over evil, it is a representation of the alchemical work. Saint Michael slaying the dragon does not kill him, he disciplines energy to use, it indicates the completion of the Work. As Hermes, placed at the crossroads of life and death, the saint, placed at the intersection of the square and the boulevard, weighs souls and its upper position, dominates the three worlds represented by the three steps. Both chimeras symbolize time and nature, the course of life.
9-13 Place Saint-Michel 75006 Paris