For centuries, Parisians came to the Marché des Enfants Rouges to fill their shopping baskets with sharp cheeses and soft breads, old wines and plump vegetables. The covered food market — the oldest in Paris — was a place to plan family dinners, chat with vendors, and mingle with tourists attracted to the site’s eclectic mix of food stalls.
But on Monday, before dawn broke over the French capital, flames ripped through the market, bringing down part of the metal structure and destroying 17 stalls inside, officials said.
“Nothing remains,” Lt. Col. Pierre de Bouvier, a Parisian fire official, told reporters at the scene. He said firefighters were called around 4:15 a.m. but that high-reaching flames had already engulfed about 10,000 square feet of the market when they arrived.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire, which caused no injuries.
The blaze destroyed a living emblem of France’s love of food.
The market, in the heart of the Marais neighborhood, opened in 1615 as a vibrant food hall in what was, at the time, the largest city in western Europe. More recently, it has served as a place where visitors and locals alike came to buy traditional French fares and to taste dishes from the Caribbean, North Africa, the Levant and beyond.
“I used to go there when I was little,” said Bahia Lahlou, a 21-year-old student who lives in the neighborhood.
Ms. Lahlou and other bystanders watched in silence on Monday morning as firefighters worked at the blocked-off scene, on the right bank of the Seine. The market’s blackened roof sagged.
“It was kind of a hub that brought together lots of different cuisines,” Ms. Lahlou said. For many, she added, “it was an opportunity to discover French cuisine.”
Ariel Weil, the mayor of central Paris, said on social media that the market had been “totally devastated” and “ravaged by flames,” but that firefighters had managed to control the blaze. A spokesperson for Mr. Weil said on Monday that police were notified of the fire around 4 a.m. and that it was contained two hours later.
Les Enfants Rouges, which translates to “red children,” got its name at the end of the 1700s. After a neighborhood orphanage closed in 1772, the market was named in memory of the children there, who had been dressed in red.
In 1982, the market was designated a historic monument. By the 1990s, though, the market was a ruin. When Parisians heard of plans to demolish it and turn it into a parking lot, vendors and local residents staged a sit-in and slept outside the building to protect it, according to the city’s official website.
The die-hards won and renovations began. By the mid-2000s, the market had again become a center of life in Le Marais, a vibrant area that is still the traditional heart of France’s Jewish community.
On Monday morning, though, grief had replaced the customary bustle and buzz of the market. Instead of the pungent odor of cheeses and the warm aroma of hot food, the smell of smoke hung heavy over the ruin.
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