It received up to eight thousand children a year before the French Revolution. The Canons' Quarter Most of the very old residential quarters on the island were destroyed by Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann in the 19th century. Only one small area remains: the Canons' Quarter (Quartier des Chainoines), located between the Quai aux Fleurs, the rue d'Arcole and the rue du Cloitre-Notre Dame. In the 16th century it was the residence of many of the canons of the cathedral. It was closed to the outside world by gates, no commerce was permitted, and no women were allowed except those of "respectable age." Several residences remain from this period; the house at 24 rue Chanoinesse, from about 1512, has large doors leading to an interior courtyard and dormer windows jutting up from the roof. It is now covered with wisteria. Another good example is found at 12 Rue Chanoinesse. One celebrated inhabitant of the neighborhood was the playwright Jean Racine, who lived on the second floor in the courtyard of the house at 7 rue des Ursines between 1672 and 1677. Another famous resident was Héloïse, the daughter of a canon named Fulbert, who lived at 9 Quai aux Fleurs. She was seduced by her philosophy teacher, Peter Abelard, in 1418. In what became one of the most celebrated romantic tragedies in French history, she secretly married Abelard; her furious father had him arrested and castrated. Both Abelard and Heloise finished their lives living in monasteries. The original house of Héloïse was demolished in 1849, but the present house has a plaque commemorating its role in the tragic story. Quai de l'Horloge and the Palace of Justice The old royal palace lay along the Quai de l'Horloge, on the northeast side of the island. With the departure of the kings of France to the Louvre and then to Versailles, the palace gradually was transformed into the judicial center of the Kingdom, containing the courts, administrative offices and a prison. The Quai de l'Horloge takes its name from the clock in the tower on the northeastern corner of the palace. The tower was built between 1350 and 1353 as a watchtower. When it was constructed, it was directly on the Seine. The stone walls of the Quai de l'Horloge, built beginning in 1611, created space for a road. The first clock was ordered by Charles V, and faced the interior of