Superbly located on the corner of rue St. Jacques, the first Roman-built road in Luticia (as the Romans called Paris), the building's foundation stone work dates to the Roman empire. In the 15th century an Ursuline Convent was built upon this site, and its vaulted cellars still support today's structure and is listed in the Latin Quarter's historical archives. The current townhouse was built in 1790 after the French revolution by the Count de Briel and has been in the same family for over 214 years. During World War II, secret underground tunnels below the house linked the resistance movement to a network of passages to the nearby Val de Grace Cathedral in one direction and the Pantheon in the other. Today the townhouse has been restored to the historic splendor of the Directoire period of architecture and decoration. The house is located in the triad of the Pantheon, the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens and Val de Grace Cathedral, not to mention some of the most gracious, interesting, and well-known Left-Bank stores and restaurants. Across the street are Louis XVI's School for the deaf, the birthplace of sign language