The Hospital, built around the chapel of Saint Louis de la Salpetriere, was first commissioned by Louis XIII in 1656 as a workhouse for beggars. Originally designed facing the river, it was redesigned by Le Vau to face the city. It continued as a refuge for the homeless until the end of the 19th Century.

The Jardin des Plantes, the botanical nepenthe on the Montagne Saint Genvieve, is located on the NW corner of the Blvd. de L’Hopital on the Place Valhubert, and occupies the same park as the gargantuan natural history museum and the oldest Zoo in Paris.

Behind the Hospital the Blvd. Vincent Auriol climbs up toward the Place D’Italie and the 13th Arrondissement town hall on either side of an elevated metro. The Pont de Bercy, first suspension bridge built in Paris and finished six months after the first stone was laid in 1832, was later rebuilt by order of Napolen III as a sister to the Pont Louis Philippe and was fitted with an upper Viaduct for the metro in 1909.

The Boulevard Saint Marcel, also the name of the local parish, is a busy residential street leading to the Ave de Port Royal and the Place des Monuments, The church for it is located on the Boulevard de L’Hopital and contains one of the many listed organs of France. The open-air Salpetriere market on the Boulevard de L’Hopital is open on Fridays morning.