The Rue du Cloître-Saint-Benoît (pronounced as /fr/) was a now-disappeared street in the Sorbonne district of Paris, demolished to build the present Rue des Écoles. It was named after the cloister of the église Saint-Benoît-le-Bétourné,[1] and just before the French Revolution, it fell within that church's parish.[2] It was made part of the Chalier sector during the Revolution; that sector was renamed the Sorbonne district when the original 11th arrondissement of Paris was formed in 1795.[1]
It began at the Rue des Mathurins-Saint-Jacques (now the Rue Du Sommerard) and ended at the Passage Saint-Benoît-Saint-Jacques.[3] [1] Its house numbers were black[4] and the last numbers were 23 and 26.[1]
In a judicial act of 1243 it was known as the Rue André Machel after its owner.[1] It was later renamed the Rue de l'Encloître Saint-Benoist[5] then the Rue du Cloître Saint-Benoît since it served the église Saint-Benoît-le-Bétourné.[1] Around 1280-1300, it was mentioned in Le Dit des rues de Paris by Guillot de Paris as en Cloistre Saint-Beneoit le bestourné.
A decree of 1855 prescribed the construction of the Rue des Écoles, including the demolition of the Rue du Cloître-Saint-Benoît.[6] Around 1875, all that was left of the street was a junction between the Rue Du Sommerard and the Rue des Écoles, now totally disappeared.[5] Nos. 1, 3, 5 and 7 on the Place Paul-Painlevé were built on the site of the north part of the street and the main auditorium of the Sorbonne occupies part of its south side.[7]