The Conciergerie is a building in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, formerly a prison but presently used mostly for law courts. It was part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, which consisted of the Conciergerie, Palais de Justice and the Sainte-Chapelle. Hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution were taken from the Conciergerie to be executed by guillotine at a number of locations around Paris.

The ten month Reign of Terror (September 1793 – July 1794) had a profound effect on France. More than 40,000 people died from execution and imprisonment, and France would not be a republic again for nearly half a century.

The National Convention enacted the Law of Suspects on September 17, 1793. This act declared that anyone considered a counter-revolutionary or enemy of the republic was guilty of treason and, thus, condemned to death. The Revolutionary Tribunal was set up in the Palace of Justice. The two fates for those sent before the tribunal were acquittal or death, with no possibility of appeal. Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, a radical, was named public prosecutor. The Tribunal sat in the Great Hall between 2 April 1793 and 31 May 1795 and sent nearly 2,600 prisoners to the guillotine.

The Conciergerie prison became the main penitentiary of a network of prisons throughout Paris, and was the last place of housing for more than 2,700 people, who were summarily executed by guillotine. The dank dungeons were a stark contrast to the beautiful architecture of the palace above. The quality of life of the prisoners was based mainly on their personal wealth and the whims of the jailers. The revolutionary period continued the prison's tradition of interning prisoners based on wealth, such that wealthier prisoners could rent a bed for 27 livres 12 sous for the first month, 22 livres 10 sous for subsequent months. Even when the price was decreased to 15 livres, the commanders of the prison made a fortune: as the Terror escalated, a prisoner could pay for a bed and be executed a few days later, freeing the bed for a new inmate who would then pay as well. One memoirist termed the Conciergerie "the most lucrative furnished lodgings in Paris". Only celebrity prisoners were assigned cells to themselves. Most of the pistole inmates were stuffed into a single room that abutted a local hospital, making disease an inevitability. The cramped cells were infested with rats, and the stench of urine permeated every room.

All the prisoners, except those locked in the dungeons, were allowed to walk about the prisoners' gallery from 8 a.m. to an hour before sunset. Roll call was always a tortuous proceeding because many of the jailers were illiterate and it could take hours for them to confirm that all of the prisoners were accounted for. A principal jailer, who sat by the door, determined whether visitors would be allowed inside the prison. His decision depended more on his mood than any set proceedings. He was also in charge of resolving disputes between jailers and their charges.

Prisoners held at the Conciergerie included Marie Antoinette, poet André Chénier, Charlotte Corday, Madame Élisabeth, Madame du Barry and the 21 Girondins, purged at the beginning of the Terror. Georges Danton later awaited his execution here, and, during the Thermidorian Reaction, Robespierre himself was interned for a brief time before his execution.

The buildings which form this prison still retain the hideous character of feudal times. The préau presents a kind of area or court, one hundred and eighty feet in length by sixty in breadth, round which is a gallery leading to the cells, and communicating by stairs to the upper storeys. It was partly constructed in the thirteenth century, and partly rebuilt in modern times, and is ten or twelve feet below the level of the adjacent streets; it serves as a promenade for the prisoners. The dungeons, which have not been used for the last thirty years, are twenty-three feet in length by eleven and a half in height.

The Conciergerie was decommissioned during 1914 and opened to the public as a national historical monument. It is presently a popular tourist attraction, although only a relatively small part of the building is open to public access; much of it is still used for the Paris law courts. It has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

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