Abbesses is the deepest station in the Paris Métro, at 36 metres (118 feet)[1] below ground, and is located on the western side of the butte (hill) of Montmartre.

Nearby are the Montmartre district, the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre (church), the Place du Tertre and the Église Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre (Art Nouveau church).

The station opened on 30 January 1913,[2] three months after the extension of the Nord-Sud company's line A from Pigalle to Jules Joffrin.

The station's entrance, designed by Hector Guimard (1867–1942), is one of only two remaining glass-covered "dragonfly" entrances, known as édicules (the other is located at Porte Dauphine, while a replica exists at Châtelet).

The entrance is technically anachronistic, since line 12 of the Paris metro was built by a competing firm, the Nord-Sud Company, which did not hire Guimard but engaged other architects to design its stations and station entrances.