The Marché des Enfants Rouges, established in 1615 during the reign of Louis XIII, was a daily attraction for thousands of locals and tourists. It took its name from a nearby orphanage, the Hospice des Enfants Rouges, founded in 1536, whose child residents were dressed in red.
Ariel Weil, the central Paris mayor, said the market had been "totally destroyed" in the blaze. "The worst was avoided: the fire did not spread to the surrounding buildings," he said. "But there is a lot of emotion. A lot of sadness."
The structure was listed as a historic monument in 1982 but narrowly escaped demolition shortly afterwards when Paris city hall, then led by mayor Jacques Chirac, approved plans to replace it with an underground car park, a daycare facility and a community centre.
A campaign by local residents and neighbourhood associations, backed by intellectuals, writers and artists including filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier and photographer Willy Ronis, gathered tens of thousands of signatures in protest. The plans were abandoned in the mid-1990s.
Rather than demolish the building, the city undertook a six-year, 13m-franc (about EUR3 million) renovation that restored the market's historic wood and ironwork frame and glass roof. Les Enfants Rouges reopened as a food court in 2000.
While still hosting some traditional stalls including a greengrocer, butcher, cheesemonger and fishmonger, the 1,000 square metre market was mostly given over to more than a dozen stands offering French, Lebanese, Moroccan, Japanese and other street food.