[an error occurred while processing this directive] France 2023: History and Layout of Paris

France 2023

History and Layout of Paris

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Eiffel Tower, hand sketch illustration

The capital and primate city of France, Paris has long been nicknamed La Ville Lumiere ("The City of Light"), both in the symbolic sense of its leading role in the European Age of Enlightenment and in the literal sense of being one of the first major European cities to make widespread use of gas street lighting.

History of Paris

There is archeological evidence of permanent human settlements in the Île-de-France region as far back as the late Neolithic era (~4200 BC), making it one of the oldest sites in Western Europe. However, the modern city of Paris descends from the oppidum (fortified town) of Lutetia, which was founded by the Parisii tribe of the Gauls around the 3rd century BC and subsequently conquered by the Romans during the reign of Caesar Augustus (63 BC - 14 AD). Despite its natural importance as a major trade center, Paris was not a capital city under the Romans; instead, it fell within the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, which was ruled from Lugdunum (modern day Lyon). In turn, Gallia Lugdunensis as a whole fell within the prefecture of Galliae, under the western tetrarch Constantius at Augusta Treverorum (modern day Trier, Germany).

Paris gained its modern name and capital status during the rule of the Merovingian Dynasty (5th century to 751) , and has remained the permanent capital under all subsequent governments: the Carolingian Dynasty, the Capetian Dynasty, the Ancien Regime of the House of Valois and then the House of Bourbon, and so on up to the modern Cinquième République Française (Fifth French Republic). The Nazi-aligned État Français of WWII was a notable semi-exception in ruling from Vichy because Paris was in the portion of France directly occupied by Germany, but even then Paris remained the nominal capital of France.

City Walls

From its founding until 1932, Paris was a fortified city surrounded by a defensive perimeter wall. Over time, the city repeatedly outgrew its boundaries and new walls were built around enlarged perimeters.

Gaulish Wall

While the exact location and layout is lost to history, Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico mentions that the Parisii tribe had an oppidium (fortified settlement) on a island in the Seine. It is unclear whether or not this was the modern-day Île de la Cité.

Gallo-Roman Wall

During the Roman era, a substantial rock wall was built across the eastern half of the Île de la Cité. It is recorded in Roman records that during the barbarian invasions of 285, the inhabitants of Lutetia abandoned unfortified settlements on the left bank and retreated to the island, burning the bridges behind them to prevent pursuit.

Fragments of the Roman rock wall have been unearthed in the Crypte Archéologique of the Place du Parvis-Notre-Dame.

First Medieval Wall

A wall was built on the right bank of the Seine sometime around the 10th century. Very little is known of this wall, but traces of it were discovered during several archeological excavations, most recently in 2009 at the rue de Rivoli.

L'enceinte de Philip II Augustus

L'enceinte de Philip II Augustus was built from 1190 to 1213, and is the oldest wall whose location and plan are accurately known, as portions of it survive to this day. The wall was six to eight metres tall, three metres thick, and incorporated seventy-seven 15 metre high towers all along its length of approximately 2.5 kilometres on the Left Bank and 2.6 kilometers on the Right Bank, with four enormous 25-metre high bastion towers at the ends where the walls met the Seine. The wall enclosed an total area of some 253 hectares, and had eleven (later fifteen) large gates plus numerous small posterns. In addition, the original Louvre Castle was built to anchor this wall.

A segment of this wall remains at the Rue des Jardins-Saint-Paul, having been preserved by its integration into a convent. In addition, the foundations of the Louvre Castle are displayed in the basement level galleries beneath the Cour Carée of the Palais Louvre.

L'enceinte de Charles V

L'enceinte de Charles V was built from 1356 to 1383 on the right bank of the Seine past the Wall of Phillippe Auguste. It extended the city of Paris to over 440 hectares and over 150,000 inhabitants. Along with this wall was constructed the Chastel Saint-Antoine (popularly known as "La Bastille"), which replaced the Louvre as the principal military fortification of the right bank.

A section of counter-scarp from near the Bastille survives along the platform of Line 5 at the Bastille Métro station, and the Grands Boulevards in Paris run along its former line, with certain sections visibly climbing and descending over its buried bastions.

L'enceinte de Louis XIII

L'enceinte de Louis XIII, also known as L'enceinte Fossés Jaunes, was built in 1566. It partially replaced the western portions of l'enceinte de Charles V with a taller and grander wall which extended further outward by approximately a kilometer. Both were demolished together in 1670 by order of Louis XIV.

The ruins of one of the bastions of this wall still stand in the basement of the Musée de l’Orangerie.

Le Mur des Fermiers Généraux

Le Mur des Fermiers Généraux was built from 1784 to 1791 to aid in the collection of municipal taxes by the private Ferme Généraux. The wall was commissioned by the famous French scientist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, who was a shareholder and administrator of the Ferme Généraux and calculated that the cost of building and staffing a new wall would be more than balanced by the increased revenue that could be extracted. The tax wall stood only two metres high and ran for 24 kilometres along the municipal tax boundary of Paris, with a total of 62 barrières (toll gates) along that length.

Since it existed for no purpose other than the further enrichment of one of the most corrupt institutions of the Ancien Regime, the wall was tremendously unpopular and Lavoisier was promptly guillotined when the Revolution came. The outsourcing of taxation was banned, and the municipalities of France were required to handle taxes themselves. In 1860, the tax boundary of Paris was moved out to the new Thiers walls, and Le Mur des Fermiers Généraux was demolished.

Pour augmenter son numéraire
Et raccourcir notre horizon
La Ferme a jugé nécessaire
De mettre Paris en prison

Four of the gatehouses of this wall survive to this day: the twin gatehouses of the Barrière d'Enfer at the Place Denfert, the twin gatehouses and columns of the Barrière de Trône at the Place de la Nation, the rotunda of the Barrière de Chartres at the Parc Monceau, and the rotunda of the Barrière de La Villette at the Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad.

L'Enceinte de Thiers

L'Enceinte de Thiers was the final defensive wall of Paris, built from 1841 to 1846. The wall was 33 kilometres in length and completely ringed Paris from a substantial distance beyond the city limits of the time, although in 1860 the city limits were expanded up to the Rue Militarire which passed inside of the wall. It was organized into 94 numbered bastions and incorporated 8 railway crossings, 17 portes for the routes nationale leading out from Paris, 23 barrières for the lesser routes departmentale, and 12 posterns for local access. The fortification followed the system of de Cormontaigne, with a six metre high rampart of packed earth, a 25 metre wide dry ditch, and a sloped earth counterscarp topped by a glacis ridge which shielded the scarp wall that reinforced the base of the rampart. In addition, a set of sixteen outlying trace Italienne type bastion forts was built at distances of two to five kilometres past the wall.

During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), L'Enceinte de Thiers successfully withstood over four months of siege by the combined armies of the North German Confederation, although Paris ultimately surrendered after it became clear that the French army would not arrive in time to save the city. The wall was deemed militarily obsolete by the turn of the century, but was not demolished until 1919-1932. Notably, the student housing of the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris was built on space cleared from the southern portion of the wall.

The only surviving piece of this wall is part of the Porte d'Asnières at the Jardin Claire Motte, 23 Rue Albert-Roussel in the 17th.

Post-Wall Era

Despite the removal of L'Enceinte de Thiers, the borders of Paris have remained essentially unchanged since 1860 when it the city was expanded up to the new walls, with only minor adjustments being made up to 1954 and none since. This can be seen by how closely the city border follows the Boulevards des Maréchaux and the Boulevard Périphérique, the former being the former Rue Militaire which ran directly behind the fortifications and the latter being built in the zone non aedificandi just outside the wall.

La Seine

The layout of Paris is fundamentally defined by the Seine River, which curves through the centre of the city in an overall diagonal from southeast to northwest. The banks of the Seine are named based on standing in the direction of the current, so the south portion of the city is the "Left Bank" and the north portion is the "Right Bank". A total of 37 bridges cross the Seine within Paris, from upstream to downstream:

Pont Amont
An officially unnamed 1969 vehicle-only bridge carrying the upstream end of the Boulevard Périphérique across the Seine from the Quai de Bercy in the 12th to the Quai d'Ivry in the 13th. At 270 metres, it is the second-longest bridge in Paris.
Pont National
Originally the Pont Napoléon III, 1852 railway bridge carrying the Petite Ceinture across the Seine. Subsequently expanded to also link the Boulevard Poniatowski in the 12th to the Boulevard Masséna in the 13th.
Pont de Tolbiac
A road bridge built from 1879 to 1882, connecting the Quai de Bercy in the 12th to rue Nueve Tolbiac in the 13th.
Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir
A pedestrian and cyclist bridge built in 2006, connecting the Parc de Bercy in the 12th to the parvise of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the 13th. This is the 37th and newest bridge of Paris, using an undulating lenticular design to cross the Seine wiwthout any support piers.
Pont de Bercy
Built from 1863 to 1864 to replace an 1832 bridge (which in turn replaced a ferry), connecting the Boulevard de Bercy in the 12th to the Boulevard Vincent-Auriol in the 13th. Expanded in 1904 to also carry Line 6 of the Métro and further expanded from 1989 to 1992 to carry three additional traffic lanes.
Pont Charles de Gaulle
Northbound one-way bridge built in 1996, connecting the Gare de Lyon in the 12th to the Gare d'Austerlitz in the 13th.
Viaduc d'Austerlitz
Rail-only bridge built in 1904, carrying Line 5 of the Métro from the Quai de la Rapée 12th to the Gare d'Austerlitz in the 13th.
Pont d'Austerlitz
Southbound one-way bridge built in 1801, connecting the rue Ledru-Rollin in the 12th to the Jardin des Plantes in the 5th and 13th. Expanded to 18 metres in 1854 and again to 30 metres in 1884-1885.
Pont de Sully
Paired bridges built in 1876-1877, with the southern replacing the Passerelle Damiette connecting the Île Saint-Louis to the Boulevard Henri IV in the 4th and the northern replacing the Passerelle de Constantine connecting the Île Saint-Louis to the Boulevard Saint-Germain in the 5th.
Pont Marie
Pont de la Tournelle
Pont Louis-Phillipe
Pont Saint Louis
Built in 1969-1980, this is the seventh in a long line of pedestrian bridges between the Île Saint-Louis and the Île de la Cité.
Pont del Archêvevé
Built in 1828 after the failure of the 1821 Pont des Invalides suspension bridge (which was located on the site of the current Pont Alexandre III), this bridge connects the Rue des Bernadins in the 5th to the Île de la Cité.
Pont d'Arcole
Pont au Double
Pont Notre-Dame
Petit Pont
Pont au Change
Built in 1858-1860 and bearing the imperial insignia of Napoleon III, this bridge connects the Île de la Cité to the Place du Châtelet at the border of the 1st and 4th. Its previous incarnation would have been the bridge from which Inspecteur Javert threw himself into the river in Les Miserables.
Pont Saint-Michel
Built in 1857, this bridge connects the Place Saint-Michel in the 4th to the Île de la Cité to the Place du Châtelet at the border of the 1st and 4th. It is the southern counterpart of the Pont au Change.
Pont Neuf
The Pont Neuf is (ironically) the oldest standing bridge in Paris, built from 1578 to 1607 to relieve overloading on the nearby Pont Notre-Dame. The southern span of the bridge connects the rue Dauphine in the 6th to the Île de la Cité, while the northern span connects Île de la Cité to the Rue de Pont Neuf in the 2nd. The equestrian statue of King Henry IV in the center of the bridge is an 1818 recasting of the original statue erected in 1618, which was destroyed during the French Revolution.
Passerelle des Arts
A pedestrian bridge built from 1981 to 1984 to replace a war damaged and partially collapsed 1802-1804 bridge of the same name and style, connecting the Institut de France in the 6th with the cour carrée of the Palais du Louvre in the 1st. The original Passerelle des Arts was the first metal bridge in Paris.
Pont du Carrousel
Pont Royal
Passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor
Pont de la Concorde
Pont Alexandre III
The Pont Alexandre III was built from 1896 to 1900 for the Exposition Universelle of 1900, connecting Les Invalides on the left bank with the Grand Palais and Petit Palais on the right bank.

Pont des Invalides
Pont de L'Alma
Passerelle Debilly
Pont d'Iena
Pont de Bir-Kaleim
Pont Rouelle
Pont de Grenelle-Cadets de Saumur
Pont Mirabeau
Pont du Garigliano
Pont Aval
An officially unnamed 1969 vehicle-only bridge carrying the downstream end of the Boulevard Périphérique across the Seine from the Quai d'Issy-les-Moulineaux in the 15th to the Quai Saint-Exupéry in the 16th. At 313 metres, it is the longest bridge in Paris.

Arondissements

The city of Paris is divided into into twenty arondissements (districts) which are numbbered in a clockwise outward spiral. Each arondissement is then further subdivided into four quartiers, although the quartier names are rarely used outside of certain historic examples.

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