Paris is no stranger to the street art culture and the French capital is about to open the country’s biggest museum dedicated to hip hop and street art in an abandoned rail maintenance hall.
1. Hip hop and street art museum
The northern Paris commune of Saint-Denis has announced its plan to open France’s largest museum dedicated to the hip hop and street art culture. The project is organised in collaboration with the Hip Hop Citizens association and Maquis-Art, a collective of independent street artists.
Works on renovating the abandoned rail site are scheduled to start in 2026, with a launch date for the museum planned for 2029, if everything is on track. Once complete, the museum will not only be home to various exhibitions, but it will also host events, bringing together artists and admirers.
Should the commune manage to respect the intended schedule, authorities hope the opening of the museum would help boost Saint-Denis’ application for the European Capital of Culture 2028 title.
2. Reviving the Rail Cathedrals
Opened in 1872 for the maintenance of steam train locomotives, the site, called Cathédrales du rail (the Rail Cathedrals), has been abandoned for almost 25 years and for just as much time people have been trying to figure out what to do with it. In 2021, the commune of Saint-Denis and the French national rail operator SNCF made a call for projects of transforming the 6 hectares area into an impactful cultural site.
The winners of the contest were Eiffage Aménagement and Aire Nouvelle, part of Equans France, who proposed an eco-friendly transformation of the Rail Cathedrals that would greatly enhance the city’s cultural scene.
The entire 8,400 square metres of former workshops will be preserved, keeping the 19 metres hight and industrial architecture of the cathedrals, offering a great open space for visitors to better experience the coming exhibitions. Around the two halls 650 trees will be planted over an area of 1.7 hectares, creating a “real green lung in the centre of the cathedrals and the city”.
