1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Paris
PARIS, the capital of France and the department of Seine, situated on both banks of the Seine, 233 m. from its mouth and 285 m. S.S.E. of London by rail and steamer via Dover and Calais, in 48° 50′ 14″ N., 2° 20′ 14″ E. (observatory). It occupies the centre of the so-called Paris basin, which is traversed by the Seine from south-east to north-west, open towards the west, and surrounded by a line of Jurassic heights. The granitic substratum is covered by Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary formations; and at several points building materials—freestone, limestone or gypsum—have been laid bare by erosion. It is partly, indeed, to the existence of such quarries in its neighbourhood, and to the vicinity of the grain-bearing regions of the Beauce and Brie that the city owes its development. Still more important is its position at the meeting-place of the great natural highways leading from the Mediterranean to the ocean by way of the Rhone valley and from Spain northwards over the lowlands of western France. The altitude of Paris varies between 80 ft. (at the Point du Jour, the exit of the Seine from the fortifications) and 420 ft. at the hill of Montmartre in the north of the city; the other chief eminence is the hill of Ste Geneviève, on the left bank. Since 1840 Paris has been completely surrounded by a wall, which since 1860 has served also as the limit for the collection of municipal customs dues (octroi). Proposals are constantly being brought forward to demolish this wall—which, with its talus, is encircled by a broad and deep ditch—either entirely or at least from the Point du Jour, where the Seine intersects the wall below the city, to Pantin, so as to extend the limits of the city as far as the Seine, which runs almost parallel with the wall for that distance. Within the wall the area of the city is 19,279 acres; the river runs through it from east to west in a broad curve for a distance of nearly 8 m.
Climate.—Paris has a fairly uniform climate. The mean temperature, calculated from observations extending over fifty years (1841–1890), is 49·8° F. The highest reading (observed in July 1874 and again in July 1881) is 101° F., the lowest (in December 1879) is −14°. The monthly means for the fifty years (1841–1890) were: January 35·9°, February 38·3°, March 42·3°, April 49·5°, May 55·6°, June 61·7°, July 64·6°, August 63·5°, September 58·2°, October 49·8°, November 40·2°, December 36·6°. The Seine freezes when the temperature falls below 18°. It was frozen in nearly its whole extent from Bercy to Auteuil in the winters of 1819–1820, 1829–1830, 1879–1880 and 1890–1891. Rain falls, on an average, on about 200 days, the average quantity in a year being between 22 and 23 in. The rainfall from December to April inclusive is less than the average, while the rainfall from May to November exceeds the average for the whole year. The driest month is February, the rainiest June—the rainfall for these months being respectively 1·3 in. and 2·3 in. The prevailing winds are those from the south, south-west and west. The general character of the climate, somewhat continental in winter and oceanic in summer, has been more closely observed since the three observatories at different heights on the Eiffel Tower were added in 1889 to the old-established ones of the parks of St Maur and Montsouris.[1] The observatory at the old church-tower St Jacques (16th century) in the centre of the city, and since 1896 a municipal establishment, is of special interest on account of the study made there of the transparency and purity of the air. There are barely 100 days in the year when the air is very clear. Generally the city is covered by floating mists, possibly 1500 ft. in thickness. During the prevalence of north-easterly winds the sky is most obscured, since on that side lies the greatest number of factories with smoking chimneys.
Defences.—Paris, described in a recent German account as the greatest fortress in the world, possesses three perfectly distinct rings of defences. The two inner, the enceinte and the circle of detached forts around it, are of the bastioned type which French engineers of the Noizet school favoured; they were built in the time of Louis Philippe, and with very few additions sustained the siege of 1870–71. The outer works, of more modern type, forming, an entrenched camp which in area is rivalled only by the Antwerp system of defences, were built after the Franco-German War.
The enceinte (“the fortifications” of the guide-books) is of plain bastion trace, without ravelins but with a deep dry ditch (escarp, but not counterscarp revetted). It is nearly 22 m. in perimeter and has 93 bastions, 67 gates and 9 railway passages. The greater part of the enceinte has, however, been given up, and a larger one projected—as at Antwerp—by connecting up the old detached forts.
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The new works are 11 m. from the Louvre and 8 from the enceinte. They form a circle of 75 m. circumference, and an army which attempted to invest Paris to-day would have to be at least 500,000 strong, irrespective of all field and covering forces. The actual defence of the works, apart from troops temporarily collected in the fortified area, would need some 170,000 men only.
The entrenched camp falls into three sections—the north, the east and the south-west. The forts (of the general 1874–1875 French type, see Fortification and Siegecraft) have from 24 to 60 heavy guns and 600 to 1200 men each, the redoubts, batteries and annexe-batteries generally 200 men and 6 guns. In the northern section a ridge crosses the northern extremities of the St Germain-Argenceuil loop of the Seine after the fashion of the armature of a horse-shoe magnet; on this ridge (about 560 ft.) is a group of works, named after the village of Cormeilles, commanding the lower Seine, the Argenteuil peninsula and the lower ground towards the Oise. At an average distance of 5 m. from St Denis lie the works of the Montlignon-Domont position (about 600–670 ft.), which sweep all ground to the north, cross their fire with the Cormeilles works, and deny the plateau of Montmorency-Méry-sur-Oise to an enemy. At Écouen, on an isolated hill, are a fort and a redoubt, and to the right near these Fort Stains and two batteries on the ceinture railway. The important eastern section consists of the Vaujours position, the salient of the whole fortress, which commands the countryside to the north as far as Dammartin and Claye, crosses its fire with Stains on the one hand and Villiers on the other, and itself lies on a steep hill at the outer edge of the forest of Bondy which allows free and concealed communication between the fort and the inner line of works. The Vaujours works are armoured. Three miles to the right of Vaujours is Fort Chelles, which bars the roads and railways of the Marne valley. On the other side of the Marne, on ground made historic by the events of 1870, are forts Villiers and Champigny, designed as a bridgehead to enable the defenders to assemble in front of the Marne. To the right of these is a fort near Boissy-St-Leger, and on the right of the whole section are the armoured works of the Villeneuve-St-Georges position, which command the Seine and Yères country as far as Brie and Corbeil. The left of the south-western section is formed by the powerful Fort Palaiseau and its annexe-batteries, which command the Yvette valley. Behind Fort Palaiseau, midway between it and Fort Châtillon, is the Verrières group, overlooking the valley of the Bièvre. To the right of Palaiseau on the high ground towards Versailles are other works, and around Versailles itself is a semi-circle of batteries right and left of the armoured Fort St Cyr. In various positions around Marly there are some seven or eight batteries.
Topography.—The development of Paris can be traced outwards in approximately concentric rings from the Gallo-Roman town on the Île de la Cité to the fortifications which now form its boundary. A line of boulevards known as the Grands Boulevards,[3] coinciding in great part with ramparts of the 14th, 16th and 17th centuries, encloses most of old Paris, a portion of which extends southwards beyond the Boulevard St Germain. Outside the Grands Boulevards lie the faubourgs or old suburbs, round which runs another enceinte of boulevards—boulevards extérieurs—corresponding to ramparts of the 18th century. Beyond them other and more modern suburbs incorporated with the city after 1860 stretch to the boulevards which line the present fortifications. On the north, east and south these are commercial or industrial in character, inhabited by the working classes and petite bourgeoisie, while here and there there are still areas devoted to market gardening; those on the west are residential centres for the upper classes (Auteuil and Passy). Of the faubourgs of Paris those to the north and east are mainly commercial (Faubourgs St Denis, St Martin, Poissonnière) or industrial (Faubourgs du Temple and St Antoine) in character, while to the west the Faubourg St Honoré, the Champs Élysées and the Faubourg St Germain are occupied by the residences of the upper classes of the population. The chief resorts of business and pleasure are concentrated within the Grands Boulevards, and more especially on the north bank of the Seine. No uniformity marks the street-plan of this or the other quarters of the city. One broad and almost straight thoroughfare bisects it under various names from Neuilly (W.N.W.) to Vincennes (E.S.E.). Within the limits of the Grands Boulevards it is known as the Rue de Rivoli (over 2 m. in length) and the Rue St Antoine and runs parallel with and close to the Seine from the Place de la Concorde to the Place de la Bastille. From the Eastern station to the observatory Paris is traversed N.N.E. and S.S.W. for 212 m. by another important thoroughfare—the Boulevard de Strasbourg continued as the Boulevard de Sébastopol, as the Boulevard du Palais on the Île de la Cité, and on the south bank as the Boulevard St Michel. The line of the Grands Boulevards from the Madeleine to the Bastille, by way of the Place de l’Opéra, the Porte St Denis and the Porte St Martin (two triumphal arches erected in the latter half of the 17th century in honour of Louis XIV.) and the Place de la République stretches for nearly 3 m. It contains most of the large cafés and several of the chief theatres, and though its gaiety and animation are concentrated at the western end—in the Boulevards des Italiens, des Capucines and de la Madeleine—it is as a whole one of the most celebrated avenues in the world. On the right side of the river may also be mentioned the Rue Royale, from the Madeleine to the Place de la Concorde; the Malesherbes and Haussmann boulevards, the first stretching from the Place Madeleine north-west to the fortifications, the second from the Grands Boulevards near the Place de l’Opéra nearly to the Place de l’Étoile; the Avenue de l’Opéra, which unites the Place du Palais Royal, approximately the central point of Paris, with the Place de l’Opéra; the Rue de la Paix, connecting the Place Vendôme with the Place de l’Opéra, and noted for its fashionable dress-making establishments, and the Rue Auber and Rue du Quatre Septembre, also terminating in the Place de l’Opéra, in the vicinity of which are found some of the finest shops in Paris; the Rue St Honoré running parallel with the Rue de Rivoli, from the Rue Royale to the Central Markets; the Rue de Lafayette, one of the longest streets of Paris, traversing the town from the Opera to the Bassin de la Villette; the Boulevard Magenta, from Montmartre to the Place de la République; and the Rue de Turbigo, from this place to the Halles Centrales. On the left side of the river the main thoroughfare is the Boulevard St Germain, beginning at the Pont Sully, skirting the Quartier Latin, the educational quarter on the north, and terminating at the Pont de la Concorde after traversing a quarter mainly devoted to ministries, embassies and other official buildings and to the residences of the noblesse.
Squares.—Some of the chief squares have already been mentioned. The finest is the Place de la Concorde, laid out under Louis XV. by J. A. Gabriel and noted as the scene of the execution of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette and many other victims of the Revolution. The central decoration consists of an obelisk from the great temple at Luxor in Upper Egypt, presented to Louis Philippe in 1831 by Mehemet Ali, and flanked by two monumental fountains. The formation of the Place Vendôme was begun towards the end of the 17th century. In the middle there is a column surmounted by a statue of Napoleon I. and decorated with plates of bronze on which are depicted scenes from the campaign of 1805. The Place de l’Étoile is the centre of twelve avenues radiating from it in all directions. The chief of these is the fashionable Avenue des Champs Élysées which connects it with the Place de la Concorde; while on the other side the Avenue de la Grande Armée leads to the fortifications, the two forming a section of the main artery of Paris; the well-wooded Avenue du Bois de Boulogne forms the threshold of the celebrated park of that name. In the centre of the Place, the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, the largest triumphal arch in the world (162 ft. high by 147 ft. wide), commemorates the military triumphs of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic troops. The finest of the sculptures on its façades is that representing the departure of the volunteers in 1792 by François Rude. The Place de la République, in which stands a huge statue of the Republic, did not receive its present form till 1879. The Place de la Bastille stands a little to the east of the site of the famous state prison. It contains the Colonne de Juillet erected in memory of those who fell in the revolution of July 1830. The Place du Carrousel, enclosed within the western wings of the Louvre and so named from a revel given there by Louis XIV., was enlarged about the middle of the 19th century. The triumphal arch on its west side commemorates the victories of 1805 and formed the main entrance to the Tuileries palace (see below). Facing the arch there is a stone pyramid forming the background to a statue of Gambetta. Other squares are the Place des Victoires, dating from 1685, with the equestrian statue of Louis XIV.; the Place des Vosges, formerly Place Royale, formed by Henry IV. on the site of the old Tournelles Palace and containing the equestrian statue of Louis XIII.; the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, once the Place de Grève and the scene of many state executions from the beginning of the 14th century till 1830; the Place du Châtelet, on the site of the prison of the Grand Châtelet, pulled down in 1802, with a fountain and a column commemorative of victories of Napoleon, and the Place de la Nation decorated with a fountain and a bronze group representing the Triumph of the Republic, and with two columns of 1788 surmounted by statues of St Louis and Philip Augustus, corresponding at the east of the city to the Place de l’Étoile at the west.
South of the Seine are the Place St Michel, adorned with a monumental fountain, and one of the great centres of traffic in Paris; the Carrefour de l’Observatoire, with the monument to Francis Jarnier, the explorer, and the statue of General Ney standing on the spot where he was shot; the Place du Panthéon; the Place Denfert Rochereau, adorned with a colossal lion symbolizing the defence of Belfort in 1871; the Place St Sulpice, with a modern fountain embellished with the statues of the preachers Bossuet, Fénelon, Massillon and Fléchier; the Place Vauban, behind the Invalides; and the Place du Palais Bourbon, in front of the Chamber of Deputies. On the Île de la Cité in front of the cathedral is the Place du Parvis-Notre-Dame, with the equestrian statue of Charlemagne.
Besides those already mentioned, Paris possesses other monumental fountains of artistic value. The Fontaine des Innocents in the Square des Innocents belonged to the church of that name demolished in 1786. It is a graceful work of the Renaissance designed by Pierre Lescot and retains sculptures by Jean Goujon. On its reconstruction on the present site other carvings were added by Augustin Pajou. A fountain of the first half of the 18th century in the Rue de Grenelle is remarkable for its rich decoration, while another in the Avenue de l’Observatoire is an elaborate modern work, the central group of which by J. B. Carpeaux represents the four quarters of the globe supporting the terrestrial sphere. The Fontaine de Medicis (17th century) in the Luxembourg garden is a work of Salomon Debrosse in the Doric style; the fountain in the Place Louvois (1844) representing the rivers of France is by Louis Visconti. In 1872 Sir Richard Wallace gave the municipality fifty drinking-fountains which are placed in different parts of the city.
The Seine.—The Seine flows for nearly 8 m. through Paris. As it enters and as it leaves the city it is crossed by a viaduct used by the circular railway and for ordinary traffic; that of Point du Jour has two storeys of arches. Three bridges—the Passerelle de l’Estacade, between the Île St Louis and the right bank, the Pont des Arts and the Passerelle Debilly (close to the Trocadéro) are for foot passengers only; all the others are for carriages as well. The most famous, and in its actual state the oldest, is the Pont Neuf, begun in 1578, the two portions of which rest on the extremity of the island called La Cité, the point at which the river is at its widest (863 ft.). On the embankment below the Pont Neuf stands the equestrian statue of Henry IV. Between La Cité and the left bank the width of the lesser channel is reduced to 95 ft. The river has a width of 540 ft. as it enters Paris and of 446 ft. as it leaves it. After its entrance to the city it passes under the bridges of Tolbiac, Bercy and Austerlitz, that of Sully, those of Marie and Louis Philippe between the Île St Louis and the right bank; that of La Tournelle between the lie St Louis and the left bank; that of St Louis between the Île St Louis and La Cité. The Cité communicates with the right bank by the Pont d’Arcole, the Pont Notre-Dame, built on foundations of the 15th century, and the Pont au Change, owing its name to the shops of the money-changers and goldsmiths which bordered its medieval predecessor; with the left bank by that of the Archevêché, the so-called Pont au Double, the Petit Pont and the Pont St Michel, the original of which was built towards the end of the 14th century. Below the Pont Neuf come the Pont des Arts, Pont du Carrousel, Pont Royal (a fine stone structure leading to the Tuileries), and those of Solférino, La Concorde, Alexandre III. (the finest and most modern bridge in Paris, its foundation-stone having been laid by the czar Nicholas II. in 1896), Invalides, Alma, Iéna (opposite the Champ de Mars), Passy, Grenelle and Mirabeau. The Seine has at times caused disastrous floods in the city, as in January 1910. (See Seine.)
The houses of Paris nowhere abut directly on the river banks, which in their whole extent from the bridge of Austerlitz to Passy are protected by broad embankments or “quais.” At the foot of these lie several ports for the unloading and loading of goods, &c.—on the right side Bercy for wines, La Rapée for timber, Port Mazas, the Port de l’Arsenal at the mouth of the St Martin canal,[4] the Port Henry IV., des Celestins, St Paul, des Ormes, de l’Hôtel de Ville (the two latter for fruit) and the Port St Nicolas (foreign vessels); on the left bank the Port de la Gare for petroleum, St Bernard for wines and the embarcation of sewage, and the ports of La Tournelle (old iron), Orsay (building material), the Invalides, Gros Caillou, the Cygnes, Grenelle and Javel (refuse). Besides the river ports, the port of Paris also includes the canals of St Martin and the portions of the canals of St Denis and the Ourcq within the walls. All three debouch in the busy and extensive basin of La Villette in the north-east of the city. The traffic of the port is chiefly in coal, building materials and stone, manure and fertilizers, agricultural produce and food-stuffs.
Promenades and Parks.—In the heart of Paris are situated the gardens of the Tuileries[5] (56 acres), designed by André Le Notre under Louis XIV. Though added to and altered afterwards they retain the main outlines of the original plan. They are laid out in parterres and bosquets, planted with chestnut trees, lindens and plane trees, and adorned with playing fountains and basins, and numerous statues mostly antique in subject. From the terrace along the river-side a fine view is to be had over the Seine to the park and palace of the Trocadéro; and from the terraces along the Place de la Concorde the eye takes in the Place and the Avenue of the Champs Élysées. The gardens of the Luxembourg,[5] planned by S. Debrosse (17th century) and situated in front of the palace occupied by the senate, are about the same size as those of the Tuileries; with less regularity of form they present greater variety of appearance. In the line of the main entrance extends the beautiful Observatory Walk, terminating in the monumental fountain mentioned above. Besides these gardens laid out in the French taste, with straight walks and regular beds, there are several in what the French designate the English style. The finest and most extensive of these, the Buttes-Chaumont Gardens, in the north-east of the city, occupy 57 acres of very irregular ground, which up to 1866 was occupied by plaster-quarries, limekilns and brickworks. The “buttes” or knolls are now covered with turf, flowers and shrubbery. Advantage has been taken of the varying relief of the site to form a fine lake and a cascade with picturesque rocks. The Montsouris Park, in the south of the city, 38 acres in extent, also consists of broken ground; in the middle stands the meteorological observatory, built after the model of the Tunisian palace of Bardo, and it also contains a monument in memory of the Flatters expedition to the Sahara in 1881. The small Monceau Park, in the aristocratic quarter to the north of the Boulevard Haussmann, is a portion of the old park belonging to King Louis Philippe, and contains monuments to Chopin, Gounod, Guy de Maupassant and others.
The Jardin des Plantes[5] (founded in the first half of the 17th century), about 58 acres in extent, combines both styles. Its museum of natural history (1793), with its zoological gardens, its hothouses and greenhouses, its nursery and naturalization gardens, its museums of zoology, anatomy, anthropology, botany, mineralogy and geology, its laboratories, and its courses of lectures by the most distinguished professors in all branches of natural science, make it an institution of universally acknowledged eminence.
Other open spaces worthy of mention are the Champs Élysées (west of the Place de la Concorde), begun at the end of the 17th century but only established in their present form since 1858; the Trocadéro Park, laid out for the exhibition of 1878, with its lakes, cascade and aquarium; the Champ de Mars (laid out about 1770 as a manœuvring ground for the École Militaire), containing the Eiffel Tower (q.v.); the gardens of the Palais Royal, surrounded by galleries; and the Ranelagh in Passy.
The Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes situated outside the fortifications are on a far larger scale than the parks within them. The Bois de Boulogne, commonly called the “Bois,” is reached by the wide avenue of the Champs Élysées as far as the Arc de Triomphe and thence by the avenue of the Bois de Boulogne or that of the Grande Armée. The first of these, with its side walks for foot passengers and equestrians, grass-plots, flower-beds and elegant buildings, affords a wide prospect over the Bois and the hills of St Cloud and Mont Valérien. The Bois de Boulogne covers an area of 2100 acres, is occupied by turf, clumps of trees, sheets of water or running streams. Here are the two race-courses of Longchamp (flat races) and Auteuil (steeplechases), the park of the small château of Bagatelle, 1777, the grounds of the Polo Club and the Racing Club and the gardens of the Acclimatization Society, which, with their menageries, conservatories and aquarium, are largely visited by pleasure-seekers. Trees for the public parks and squares are grown in the municipal nurseries situated on the south border of the Bois. On the east it is adjoined by the Park of La Muette, with the old royal château. The Bois de Vincennes (see Vincennes) is 2300 acres in area and is similarly adorned with streams, lakes and cascades.
Churches.—The most important church in Paris is the cathedral of Notre-Dame, founded in 1163, completed about 1240. Measuring 139 yds. in length and 52 yds. in breadth, the church consists of a choir and apse, a short transept, and a nave with double aisles which are continued round the choir and are flanked by square chapels added after the completion of the rest of the church. The central spire, 148 ft. in height, was erected in the course of a restoration carried out between 1846 and 1879 under the direction of Viollet le Duc. Two massive square towers crown the principal façade. Its three doors are decorated with fine early Gothic carving and surmounted by a row of figures representing twenty-eight kings of Israel and Judah. Above the central door is a rose window, above which is a third storey consisting of a graceful gallery of pointed arches supported on slender columns. The transept has two façades, also richly decorated with chiselled work and containing rose windows. Of the elaborate decoration of the interior all that is medieval is a part of the screen of the choir (the first half of the 14th century), with sculptures representing scenes from the life of Christ, and the stained glass of the rose windows (13th century). The woodwork in the choir (early 18th century), and a marble group called the “Vow of Louis XIII.” (17th century) by Couston and Coysevox, are other noticeable works of art. The church possesses the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the Cross, which attract numerous pilgrims.
Paris is poor in Romanesque architecture, which is represented chiefly in the nave and transept of St Germain-des-Prés, the choir of which is Gothic in tendency. The church, which once belonged to the celebrated abbey of St Germain founded in the 6th century, contains fine modern frescoes by Hippolyte Flandrin. The Transition style is also exemplified in St Pierre-de-Montmartre (12th century). Besides the cathedral there are several churches of the Gothic period, the most important being St Julien-le-Pauvre, now serving as a Greek church, which is contemporary with Notre-Dame; St Germain-l’Auxerrois (13th to 16th centuries), whose projecting porch is a graceful work of 1435; St Séverin (mainly of the 13th and 16th centuries); St Gervais, largely in the Flamboyant Gothic style with an interesting façade by S. Debrosse in the classical manner; and St Merry (1520–1612), almost wholly Gothic in architecture. St Gervais, St Merry and St Germain all contain valuable works of art, the stained glass of the two former being especially noteworthy.
St Étienne-du-Mont combines the Gothic and Renaissance styles in its nave and transept, while its choir is of Gothic, its façade of pure Renaissance architecture. In the interior, one of the most beautiful in the city, there is a fine rood-loft (1600–1609) by Pierre Biard and a splendid collection of stained windows of the 16th and early 17th centuries; a chapel contains part of the sarcophagus of Ste Geneviève, which is the object of a pilgrimage. St Eustache (1532–c. 1650), though its construction displays many Gothic characteristics, belongs wholly, with the exception of a Classical façade of the 18th century, to the Renaissance period, being unique in this respect among the more important of French churches. The church contains the sarcophagus and statue (by A. Coysevox) of Colbert and the tombs of other eminent men.
Of churches in the Classical style the principal are St Sulpice (1655–1777), almost equalling Notre-Dame in dimensions and possessing a façade by J. N. Servandoni ranking among the finest of its period; St Roch (1653–1740), which contains numerous works of art of the 17th and 18th centuries; St Paul-St Louis (1627–1641); and the church (1645–1665) of the former nunnery of Val-de-Grace (now a military hospital and medical school), which has a dome built after the model of St Peter’s at Rome. All these churches are in the old city.
Of the churches of the 19th century, the most remarkable is that of the Sacré Coeur, an important resort of pilgrims, begun in 1876 and overlooking Paris from the heights of Montmartre. The Sacré Coeur is in the Romanesque style, but is surmounted by a Byzantine dome behind which rises a lofty belfry. The bell presented by the dioceses of Savoy and known as “la Savoyarde” weighs between 17 and 18 tons. Of the other modern churches the oldest is the Madeleine, built under Napoleon I. by Pierre Vignon on the foundations of a church of the 18th century and finished in 1842. It was intended by the emperor as a “temple of glory” and is built on the lines of a Roman temple with a fine colonnade surrounding it. The interior, consisting of a single nave bordered by chapels and roofed with cupolas, is decorated with sculptures and painting by eminent modern artists. Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (1823–1836) and St Vincent-de-Paul (1824–1844) are in the style of early Christian basilicas. Both contain good frescoes, the frieze of the nave in St Vincent-de-Paul being an elaborate work by Hippolyte Flandrin. Ste Clotilde, the most important representation of modern Gothic in Paris, dates from the middle of the century. St Augustin and La Trinité in the Renaissance style were both built between 1860 and 1870. With the exception of Ste Clotilde in the St Germain quarter and the Madeleine, the modern churches above mentioned are all in the northern quarters of Paris.
Civil Buildings.—The most important of the civil buildings of Paris is the palace of the Louvre (Lupara), the south front of which extends along the Seine for about half a mile. It owes its origin to Philip Augustus, who erected a huge keep defended by a rectangle of fortifications in what is now the south-west corner of the quadrangle, where its plan is traced on the pavement. The fortress was demolished by Francis I. and under that monarch and his successors Pierre Lescot built the portions of the wings to the south and west of the courtyard, which rank among the finest examples of Renaissance architecture. The rest of the buildings surrounding the courtyard date from the reigns of Louis XIII. and XIV., the most noteworthy feature being the colonnade (1666–1670) of the east façade designed by Claude Perrault. The two wings projecting westwards from the corners of the quadrangle, each consisting of two parallel galleries with pavilions at intervals, were built under Napoleon III., with the exception of the Grande Galerie and at right angles to it the Pavillon Henry IV., containing the Apollo gallery, which were erected on the river front by Cathérine de Medici and Henry IV. Of these two wings that on the north is occupied by the ministry of finance. The history of the palace of the Tuileries (so called in allusion to the tile kilns which occupied its site) is intimately connected with that of the Louvre, its origin being due to Cathérine de Medici and Henry IV. The latter built the wing, rebuilt under Napoleon III., which united it with the Grande Galerie, the corresponding wing on the north side dating from various periods of the 19th century. The palace itself was burnt by the Communists in 1871, with the exception of the terminal pavilion on the south (Pavillon de Flore); only the northern terminal pavilion (Pavillon de Marsan, now occupied by the museum of decorative arts) was rebuilt.
Next in importance to the Louvre is the Palais de Justice (law courts), a huge assemblage of buildings covering the greater part of the Île de la Cité to the west of the Boulevard du Palais. During the Gallo-Roman period the site was occupied by a citadel which became the palace of the Merovingian kings and afterwards of the Capetian kings. In the 12th and 13th centuries it was altered and enlarged by the latter, and during part of that period was also occupied by the parlement of Paris, to which it was entirely made over under Charles V. In 1618, 1737 and 1776 the building was ravaged by fire, and in its present state is in great part the outcome of a systematic reconstruction begun in 1840. In the interior the only medieval remains are the Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, an old prison where Marie Antoinette and other illustrious victims of the Revolution were confined, and some halls and kitchens of the 13th century. All these are on the ground floor, a portion of which is assigned to the police. The courts, which include the Cour de Cassation, the supreme tribunal in France, the Court of Appeal and the Court of First Instance, are on the first floor, the chief feature of which is the fine Salle des Pas Perdus, the successor of the Grand’ Salle, a hall originally built by Philip the Fair and rebuilt after fires in 1618 and 1871. The Sainte-Chapelle, one of the most perfect specimens of Gothic art, was erected from 1245 to 1248 by St Louis as a shrine for the crown of thorns and other relics now at Notre-Dame, and was restored in the 19th century. It comprises a lower portion for the use of the servants and retainers and the upper portion or royal chapel, the latter richly decorated and lighted by lofty windows set close together and filled with beautiful stained glass. The Palais de Justice presents towards the west a Greek façade by J. L. Duc (d. 1879), which is reckoned among the finest achievements of modern art. The façade towards the Seine embodies four towers which date in parts from the reconstruction under the Capetian dynasty. That at the east angle (the Tour de l’Horloge) contains a clock of 1370, said to be the oldest public clock in France. A handsome iron railing of 1787 separates the courtyard on the east side from the Boulevard du Palais.
About a quarter of a mile south of the Palais de Justice adjoining the Jardin de Cluny lies the Hôtel de Cluny, acquired in 1833 by the antiquarian A. du Sommerard as a repository for his collections and now belonging to the state. It is a graceful and well-preserved building in late Gothic style distinguished for the beautiful carving of the doors, dormer windows and open-work parapet. The mansion, which contains a rich Gothic chapel, was erected at the end of the 15th century by Jacques d’Amboise, abbot of Cluny. It stands on the site of a Roman palace said to have been built by the emperor Constantius Chlorus (d. 306), and ruins of the baths are still to be seen adjoining it.
The other civil buildings of Paris are inferior in interest and attraction. The Hôtel des Invalides on the left bank of the Seine opposite the Champs Élysées dates from the reign of Louis XIV.; by whom it was founded as a retreat for wounded and infirm soldiers, its inmates are few in number, and the building also serves as headquarters of the military governor of Paris. A garden and a spacious esplanade stretching to the Quai d’Orsay precede the north façade; the entrance to this opens into the Cour d’Honneur, a courtyard enclosed by a moat above which is a battery of cannon used for salutes on important occasions. On either side of the Cour d’Honneur lie the museums of military history and of artillery (weapons and armour). The parish church of St Louis, decorated with flags captured in the wars of the Second Empire, closes the south Side of the Cour d’Honneur, while behind all rises a magnificent gilded dome sheltering another church, the Église royale, built by J. H. Mansart from 1693 to 1706. The central crypt of this church contains a fine sarcophagus of red porphyry in which lie the remains of Napoleon I., brought from St Helena in 1840, while close by are the tombs of his friends Duroc and Bertrand.
The Panthéon, on the left bank near the Luxembourg garden, was built to the plans of J. G. Soufflot in the last half of the 18th century under the name of Ste Geneviève, whose previous sanctuary it replaced. In 1791 the Constituent Assembly decreed that it should be no longer a church but a sepulchre for great Frenchmen. Voltaire and Mirabeau were the first to be entombed in the Panthéon as it then came to be called. Reconsecrated and resecularized more than once during the 19th century, the building finally regained its present name in 1885, when Victor Hugo was buried there. The Panthéon is an imposing domed building in the form of a Greek cross. The tympanum above the portico by David d’Angers and, in the interior, paintings of the life of Ste Geneviève by Puvis de Chavannes are features of its artistic decoration.
Various public bodies occupy mansions and palaces built under the ancient régime. The Palais Royal, built by Richelieu about 1630 and afterwards inhabited by Anne of Austria, the regent Philip II. of Orleans and Philippe Égalité, is now occupied by the Council of State and the Théâtre Français. The Palace of the Luxembourg stands on the site of a mansion belonging to Duke Francis of Luxembourg, which was rebuilt by Marie de Medici, wife of Henry IV. The architect, Salomon Debrosse, was ordered to take the Pitti Palace at Florence as his model, but notwithstanding the general plan of the building is French. The south façade facing the Luxembourg garden was rebuilt in the original style under Louis Philippe. The residence of various royal personages during the 17th and 18th centuries, the Luxembourg became during the revolutionary period the palace of the Directory and later of the Consulate. In the 19th century it was occupied by the senate of Napoleon I., by the chamber of peers under Louis Philippe, by the senate under Napoleon III., and since 1879 by the republican senate. The chamber of deputies meets in the Palais Bourbon, built in the 18th century for members of the Bourbon-Condé family. The façade, which faces the Pont de la Concorde, is in the style of an ancient temple and dates from the early years of the 19th century, when the corps legislatif held their sittings in the building. The Palais de l’Élysée, the residence of the president of the republic, was built in 1718 for Louis d’Auvergne, count of Evreux, and was afterwards acquired by Madame de Pompadour; during the 19th century Napoleon I., Napoleon III., and other illustrious persons resided there. The building has been often altered and enlarged. The hôtel-de-ville (1873–1882), on the right bank of the Seine opposite the Île de la Cité, stands on the site of a town hall built from 1535 to 1628, much enlarged towards 1840, and destroyed by the Communists in 1871. It is an isolated building in the French Renaissance style, the west façade with its statuary, pilasters, high-pitched roofs and dormer windows being specially elaborate. The interior has been decorated by many prominent artists.
Certain of the schools and museums of Paris occupy buildings of architectural interest. The Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, a technical school and museum of machinery, &c., founded by the engineer Vaucanson in 1775, is established in the old Cluniac priory of St Martin-des-Champs, enlarged in the 19th century. The refectory is a fine hall of the 13th century; the church with an interesting choir in the Transition style dates from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The Musée Carnavalet was built in the 16th century for François de Kernevenoy, whence its present name, and enlarged in 1660; Mme de Sévigné afterwards resided there. The national archives are stored in the Hôtel Soubise, a mansion of the early 18th century with 19th-century additions, standing on the site of a house built by Olivier de Clisson in 1370. It was afterwards added to by the family of Guise and rebuilt by François de Rohan, duke of Soubise. The palace of Cardinal Mazarin, augmented in modern times, contains the Bibliothèque Nationale. The Palais de l’Institut, formerly the Collège Mazarin, dates from the last half of the 17th century; it is the seat of the academies (except the Academy of Medicine, which occupies a modern building close to the École des Beaux-Arts) and of the Bureau des Longitudes, the great national astronomical council. The Military School overlooking the Champ de Mars is a fine building of the 18th century. The huge Sorbonne buildings date from the latter years of the 19th century with the exception of the church, which belonged to the college as reconstructed by Richelieu. The astronomical observatory, through the centre of which runs the meridian of Paris, is a splendidly equipped building erected under Louis XIV., according to the designs of Claude Perrault. The École des Beaux-Arts (facing the Louvre on the left bank of the Seine), with its interesting collections, partly occupies the site of an Augustine convent and comprises the old Hôtel Chimay. It was erected from 1820 to 1838 and added to later. The most striking feature is the façade of the principal building designed by F. L. J. Duban. The courtyard contains part of the façade of the Norman château of Gaillon (16th century), which was destroyed at the Revolution, and the portal of the château of Anet (erected by Philibert Delorme in 1548) has been adapted as one of the entrances. The Grand Palais des Beaux-Arts, where horse-shows, &c., as well as annual exhibitions of paintings and sculptures are held, and the Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts, which contains art collections belonging to the city, date from 1897–1900. Both buildings stand close to the north end of the Pont Alexandre III.
The Bourse, built in imitation of an ancient temple, dates from the first half of the 19th century; the Tribunal of Commerce and the Palais du Trocadéro, built for the exhibition of 1878, are both imposing buildings of the latter half of that period, to which also belongs the Hôtel des Postes et Télégraphes.
Among the numerous historic mansions of Paris a few demand special mention. The so-called Maison de François I. (on the Cours la Reine overlooking the Seine) is a small but beautifully decorated building erected at Moret in 1527 and re-erected in Paris in 1826. In the St Gervais quarter are the Hôtel de Beauvais of the latter half of the 17th century and the Hôtel Lamoignon, built after 1580 for Diane de France, duchess of Angoulême, both of which have handsome courtyards; in the same quarter is the Hôtel de Sens, of the 15th century, residence of the archbishops of Sens, whose province then included the diocese of Paris. The Hôtel Lambert on the Île St Louis, built by L. Levau in the 17th century for Nicholas Lambert and afterwards inhabited by Mme du Châtelet and Voltaire and George Sand, has a magnificent staircase and many works of art. The Hôtel de Sully, built for the duke of Sully from 1624 to 1630, is in the Rue St Antoine and has an interesting courtyard. Of the fine mansion of the dukes of Burgundy the only relic is a tower of the early 15th century built by Jean Sans Peur.
Theatres, &c.—Of the theatres of Paris four—the Opéra, the Opéra-Comique, the Théâtre Français and the Odéon—receive state subventions, amounting in all to £51,000 per annum. The Opéra (entitled the National Academy of Music) was originally founded in 1671 by Pierre Perrin, from whom the management was taken over by J. B. Lully. After several changes of locale, it was eventually transferred from the Rue Le Peletier to the present opera-house. The building, which covers 234 acres, is one of the finest theatres in the world. The process of erection, directed by Charles Gamier, lasted from 1861 to 1875 and cost nearly 112 million sterling. The front is decorated on the ground storey with allegorical groups (Music by Guillaume; Lyrical Poetry by Jouffroy; Lyrical Drama by Perraud; and Dancing by Carpeaux) and allegorical statues. Surmounting its angles are huge gilded groups representing music and poetry, and above it appears the dome which covers the auditorium. Behind that rises the vast pediment above the stage decorated at the corners with Pegasi by Lequesne. On the summit of the pediment an Apollo, raising aloft his lyre, is seen against the sky. The interior is decorated throughout with massive gilding, flamboyant scroll-work, statues, paintings, &c. The grand vestibule, with statues of Lulli, Rameau, Gluck and Handel, the grand staircase, the avant-foyer or corridor leading to the foyer, and the foyer or crush-room itself are especially noteworthy. The last is a majestic apartment with a ceiling decorated with fine painting by Paul Baudry. The auditorium is seated for 2156; its ceiling is painted by J. E. Lenepveu. Behind the stage is the foyer de la danse or green-room for the ballet, adorned with large allegorical panels and portraits of the most eminent danseuses.
The Théâtre Français or Comédie Française was formed in 1681 under the latter name by the union of Molière’s company with two other theatrical companies of the time. The name Théâtre Français dates from 1791, when part of the company headed by the tragedian Talma migrated to the south-west wing of the Palais Royal, which the company, reunified in 1799, has since occupied. Both the Théâtre Français and the less important Odéon, a building of 1782 twice rebuilt, close to the Luxembourg garden, represent the works of the classical dramatists and modern dramas both tragic and comic. The Opéra-Comique, founded in the early 18th century, occupies a building in the Boulevard des Italiens reconstructed after a fire in 1887. Serious as well as light opera is performed there.
Other theatres well known and long established are the Gymnase (chiefly comedy), the Vaudeville and the Porte St Martin (serious drama and comedy), the Variétés and the Palais Royal (farce and vaudeville); and the theatres named after and managed by Sarah Bernhardt and Réjane, the Théâtre Antoine, the Gaîté and the Ambigu may also be mentioned. The finest concerts in Paris are those of the Conservatoire de Musique et de Déclamation (Rue du Faubourg Poissonnière), while the Concerts Lamoureux and the Concerts Colonne are also of a high order. Musical and local performances of a more popular kind are given at the music halls, cafés concerts and cabarets artistiques, with which the city abounds.
Paris is the chief centre for sport in France, and the principal societies for the encouragement of sport have their headquarters in the city. Among these may be mentioned the Société d’encouragement pour l’amelioration des races de chevaux en France (associated with the Jockey Club), which is the chief authority in the country as regards racing, and the Union des sociétés françaises de sports athlétiques, which comprises committees for the organization of athletics, football, lawn tennis and amateur sport generally. The Racing Club de France, the Stade français and the Union athlétique du premier arrondissement are the chief Parisian athletic clubs. Race meetings are held at Longchamp and Auteuil in the Bois de Boulogne, and at Chantilly, Vincennes, St Cloud, St Ouen, Maisons-Laffitte and other places in the vicinity.
Museums.—Some of the more important museums of Paris require notice. The richest and most celebrated occupies the Louvre. On the ground floor are museums (1) of ancient sculpture, containing such treasures as the Venus of Milo, the Pallas of Velletri (the most beautiful of all statues of Minerva), the colossal group of the Tiber, discovered at Rome in the 14th century, &c.; (2) of Medieval and Renaissance sculpture, comprising works of Michelangelo, Jean Goujon, Germain Pilon, &c., and rooms devoted to early Christian antiquities and works by the Della Robbia and their school; (3) of modern French sculpture, with works by Puget, the brothers Coustou Coysevox, Chaude, Houdin, Rude, David of Angers, Carpeaux, &c.; (4) of Egyptian sculpture and inscriptions; (5) of antiquities from Assyria, Palestine, Phoenicia and other parts of Asia; (6) of engravings.
On the first floor are (1) the picture galleries, rich in works of the
Italian painters, especially of Leonardo da Vinci (including his Mona
Lisa), Raphael, Titian and Paolo Veronese; of the Spanish masters
Murillo is best represented; and there are numerous works by Rubens,
Van Dyck and Teniers, and by Rembrandt and Holbein. The
examples of French art form about one-third of the collection, and
include (1) the collection bequeathed in 1869 by Dr La Caze (chiefly
works of the 18th century); (2) a collection of ancient bronzes;
(3) a collection of furniture of the 17th and 18th centuries; (4) a rich
museum of drawings by great masters; (5) a museum of Medieval,
Renaissance and modern art pottery, objects in bronze, glass and
ivory, &c.; (6) the Rothschild collection of objects of art; (7) smaller
antiquities from Susiana, Chaldaea and Egypt; (8) a collection of
ancient pottery embodying the Campana collection purchased from
the Papal government in 1861; (9) the royal jewels and a splendid
collection of enamels in the spacious Apollo gallery designed by
Charles Lebrun. On the second floor are French pictures of the
19th century, the Thomy-Thiéry art-collection bequeathed in 1903,
and the marine, ethnographical and Chinese museums. The Pavillon
de La Trémoille contains a continuation of the Egyptian museum and
antiquities brought from Susiana by Augustus De Morgan between
1897 and 1905. A museum of decorative art occupies the Pavillon
de Marsan.
The museum of the Luxembourg, installed in a building near the palace occupied by the senate, is devoted to works of living painters and sculptors acquired by the state. They remain there for ten years after the death of the artists, that the finest may be selected for the Louvre.
The Cluny museum occupies the old mansion of the abbots of that order (see above). It contains about 11,000 examples of Medieval and Renaissance art-sculptures in marble, wood and stone, ivories, enamels and mosaics, pottery and porcelain, tapestries, bronzes, specimens of goldsmith’s work, both religious and civil, including nine gold crowns of the 7th century found near Toledo, Venetian glass, furniture, iron-work, state carriages, ancient boots and shoes and pictures.
The Carnavalet museum comprises a collection illustrating the history of Paris. The Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts contains art-collections belonging to the city (especially the Dutuit collection). The house of Gustave Moreau, Rue Rochefoucauld, is now a museum of his paintings, and that of Victor Hugo, Place des Vosges, contains a collection of objects relating to the poet.
The Trocadéro Palace contains a museum of casts illustrating the progress of sculpture, chiefly that of France, from the 11th to the 18th century, it also possesses a collection of Khmer antiquities from Cambodia and an ethnographical museum. In the same neighbourhood are the Guimet museum, containing the collections of Oriental pottery, of objects relating to the Oriental religions and of antiquities presented to the state in 1885 by Émile Guimet of Lyons; and the Galliéra museum, erected by the duchess of Galliéra and containing a collection of tapestries and other works of art belonging to the city. The Cernuschi Oriental museum, close to the Monceau Park, was bequeathed to the city in 1895 by M. Cernuschi.
The collection of MSS., engravings, medals and antiques in the Bibliothèque Nationale are important, as also are the industrial and machinery exhibits of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers.
For libraries see Libraries.
Population.—Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements. Only the first twelve belonged to it previous to 1860; the others correspond to the old suburban communes then annexed. The first four arrondissements occupy the space on the right of the river, extending from the Place de la Concorde to the Bastille, and from the Seine to the line of the Grands Boulevards; the 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements lie opposite them on the left side; the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th surround the first four arrondissements on the north; the 13th, 14th and 15th are formed out of the old suburban communes of the left side; and the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th out of the old suburban communes of the right side.
The growth of the population during the 19th century is shown in the following table, which gives the population present on the census day, including the population comptée à part, i.e. troops, inmates of hospitals, prisons, schools, &c.
| Years. | Population. | Years. | Population. |
1801 |
547,756 |
1866 |
1,825,274 |
Below is shown the population of the arrondissements separately (in 1906), together with the comparative density of population therein. The most thickly populated region of Paris comprises a zone stretching northwards from the Île de la Cité and the Île St Louis to the fortifications, and including the central quarters of St Gervais with 400 inhabitants to the acre, Ste Avoie with 391 inhabitants to the acre, and Bonne-Nouvelle with 406 inhabitants to the acre. The central arrondissements on the north bank, which (with the exception of I., the Louvre) are among the most densely populated, tended in the latter part of the 19th century to decrease in density, while the outlying arrondissements (XII.–XX.), which with the exception of Batignolles and Montmartre are comparatively thinly populated, increased in density, and this tendency continued in the early years of the 20th century.
| Arrondissement. | Quarters. | Population. | Inhabitants per acre. | |
| I. | Louvre | St Germain l’Auxerrois, Halles, Palais Royal, Place Vendôme. |
60,906 | 130 |
| II. | Bourse | Gaillon, Vivienne, Mail, Bonne-Nouvelle. |
61,116 | 253 |
| III. | Temple | Arts-et-Métiers, Enfants-Rouges, Archives, Ste Avoie. |
86,152 | 300 |
| IV. | Hôtel-de-Ville | St Merri, St Gervais, Arsenal, Notre-Dame. |
96,490 | 249 |
| V. | Panthéon | St Victor, Jardin des Plantes, Val de Grâce, Sorbonne. |
117,666 | 191 |
| VI. | Luxembourg | Monnaie, Odéon,
Notre Dame des Champs, St Germain des Prés. |
97,055 | 186 |
| VII. | Palais Bourbon | St Thomas d’Aquin, Invalides, École-Militaire, Gros-Caillou. |
97,375 | 98 |
| VIII. | Élysée | Champs Élysées, Faubourg-du-Roule, Madeleine, Europe. |
99,769 | 106 |
| IX. | Opéra | St Georges, Chaussée d’Antin, Faubourg Montmartre, Rochechouart. |
118,818 | 226 |
| X. | St Laurent | St Vincent de Paul, Porte St Denis, Porte St Martin, Hôpital St Louis. |
151,697 | 215 |
| XI. | Popincourt | Folie-Méricourt, St Ambroise, Roquette, Ste Marguerite. |
232,050 | 260 |
| XII. | Reuilly | Bel-Air, Picpus, Bercy, Quinze-Vingts. |
138,648 | 99 |
| XIII. | Gobelins | Salpêtrière, Gare,
Maison-Blanche, Croulebarbe. |
133,133 | 86 |
| XIV. | Observatoire | Montparnasse,Santé, Petit-Montrouge, Plaisance. |
150,136 | 131 |
| XV. | Vaugirard | St Lambert, Necker, Grenelle, Javel. |
168,190 | 94 |
| XVI. | Passy | Auteuil, Muette,
Porte-Dauphine, Chaillot. |
130,719 | 75 |
| XVII. | Batignolles-Monceau | Ternes, Plaine-Monceau, Batignolles, Epinette. |
207,127 | 188 |
| XVIII. | Montmartre | Grandes-Carrières, Clignancourt, Goutte-d’Or, Chapelle. |
258,174 | 201 |
| XIX. | Buttes-Chaumont | Villette, Pont-de-Flandre, Amérique, Combat. |
148,081 | 106 |
| XX. | Ménilmontant | Belleville, St Fargeau, Père-Lachaise, Charonne. |
169,429 | 132 |
The birth-rate, which diminished steadily in the 19th century, is low—on an average 54,000 births per annum (1901-1905) or 20·2 per 1000 inhabitants as compared with 31·1 in 1851-1855. The death-rate also is low, 48,000 deaths per annum (1901-1905), averaging 17·9 deaths per 1000 inhabitants. This is accounted for by the fact that Paris is pre-eminently a town of adults, as the following figures, referring to the year 1908, show:—
| Inhabitants | under | 1 | year of age | 41,107 | ||
| ,, | from | 1 | to | 19 | years of age | 676,995 |
| ,, | ,, | 20 | ,, | 39 | years of age | 1,108,340 |
| ,, | ,, | 40 | ,, | 59 | years of age | 663,435 |
| ,, | of | 60 years and over | 223,836 | |||
| ,, | ,, | unknown age | 9,018 | |||
In these circumstances there is nothing remarkable in the annual number of marriages in Paris (26,000), a high marriage rate (9·8 per 1000) for the total number of inhabitants, but a low one (28·4 per 1000) compared with the number of marriageable persons.
A large number of the inhabitants (on an average 636 out of every 1000) are not Parisians by birth. The foreign nationalities chiefly represented are Belgians, Germans, Swiss, Italians, Luxembourgers, English, Russians, Americans, Austrians, Dutch, Spaniards. The Belgians, Germans and Italians, mostly artisans, live chiefly in the industrial districts in the north and east of the city. The English and Americans, on the other hand, congregate in the wealthy districts of the Champs Élysées and Passy.
Municipal Administration.—Each arrondissement is divided into four quarters, each of which nominates a member of the municipal council. These 80 councillors, together with 21 additional councillors elected by the cantons of the rest of the department, form the departmental council. The chief functionaries of the arrondissement are a mayor (maire) and three deputies (adjoints) appointed by the president. The mayors act as registrars, draw up electoral and recruiting lists and superintend the poor-relief of their arrondissement. There is a justice of the peace (juge de paix) nominated by the government in each arrondissement. There is no elective mayor of Paris: the president of the municipal council, who is nominated by his colleagues, merely acts as chairman of their meetings. When occasion requires, the function of mayor of Paris is discharged by the prefect of Seine. The municipal council discusses and votes the budget of the city, scrutinizes the administrative measures of the two prefects and deliberates on municipal affairs in general. The prefect of Seine and the prefect of police (both magistrates named by the government, but each with a quite distinct sphere of action) represent the executive authority as opposed to the municipal council, which latter has no power, by refusing a vote of credit, to stop any public service the maintenance of which legally devolves on the city: in case of such refusal the minister of the interior may officially insert the credit in the budget. In like manner he may appeal to the head of the state to cancel any decision in which the council has exceeded its legal functions.
The prefecture of Seine comprises the following departments (directions), subdivided into bureaux:—
1. Municipal affairs, including bureaux for the supervision of city property, of provisioning, of cemeteries, of public buildings, &c.
2. Departmental affairs (including the bureau concerned with the care of lunatics and foundlings).
3. Primary education.
4. Streets and public works, including the bureau of water, canals and sewers, and the bureau of public thoroughfares, promenades and lighting.
5. Finance.
The administrative functions of the prefect necessitate a large technical staff of engineers, inspectors, &c., who are divided among the various services attached to the departments. There are also a number of councils and committees on special branches of public work attached to the prefecture (commission des logements insalubres, de statistique municipale, &c.). The administration of the three important departments of the octroi, poor-relief (assistance publique) and pawnbroking (the mont-de-piété) is also under the control of the prefect.
The prefecture of police includes the whole department of Seine and the neighbouring communes of the department of Seine-et-Oise—Meudon, St Cloud, Sevres and Enghien. Its sphere embraces the apprehension and punishment of criminals (police judiciaire), general police-work (including political service) and municipal policing. The state, in view of the non-municipal functions of the Paris police, repays a proportion of the annual budget which this prefecture receives from the city. The budget of the prefect of police is voted en bloc by the municipal council.
Besides numerous duties consequent on the maintenance of order, the inspection of weights and measures, authority over public spectacles, surveillance of markets and a wide hygienic and sanitary authority belong to the sphere of this prefect. In the last connexion mention may be made of an important body attached to the prefecture of police—the Conseil d’Hygiène Publique et de Salubrité of the department of the Seine, composed of 24 members nominated by the prefect of police and 17 members called to it in virtue of their office. To it are referred such questions as the sources from which to obtain drinking-water for the town, the sanitary measures to be taken during important works, the work connected with the main sewers for the cleaning of the Seine and the utilization of the sewage water, the health of workpeople employed in factories, the sanitary condition of the occupants of schools and prisons, questions relating to the disinfection of infected districts, the heating of public vehicles and dwellings, the conveyance of infected persons, night shelters, &c. Board of health (commissions d’hygiène) in each of the twenty arrondissements act in co-operation with this control council. The municipal police, consisting of brigades of gardiens de la paix, are divided among the arrondissements in each of which there is an officier de paix in command. There are besides six brigades in reserve, one attached to the central markets, another entrusted with the surveillance of cabs, while the others are held in readiness for exceptional duties, e.g. to reinforce the arrondissement brigades at public ceremonies or in times of disorder. In nearly every quarter there is a commissaire de police, whose duties are of a semi-legal nature; the police require his sanction before they can commit an arrested individual to prison, and he also fulfils magisterial functions in minor disputes, &c.
Finance.—The chief item of ordinary expenditure is the service of the municipal debt, the total of which in 1905 was nearly £125,000,000. Its annual cost rose from £722,000 in 1860 to £3,583,000 in 1875 and £4,826,000 in 1905. In the latter year the other chief items of expenditure were:—
| Poor relief | £1,490,000 |
| Prefecture of police | 1,448,000 |
| Primary instruction | 1,206,000 |
| Streets and roads | 916,000 |
| Water and drainage | 579,000 |
| Collection of octroi | 471,000 |
The general total of ordinary expenditure was £14,192,000, and of ordinary and extraordinary expenditure £16,995,000.
The chief of the ordinary sources of revenue are:—
| Octroi (municipal customs) | £4,351,000 |
| Communal centimes, dog tax and other special taxes | 3,268,000 |
| Revenue from gas company | 969,000 |
| Water rate and income from canals | 943,000 |
| Public vehicles | 614,000 |
| State contribution to, and receipts of prefecture of police | 514,000 |
| Revenue from public markets | 367,000 |
The total of ordinary revenue was £14,365,000, and of all revenue, ordinary and extraordinary, £25,426,000.
Communications.—Passenger-transport is in the hands of companies. The ordinary omnibuses are the property of the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus, founded in 1855, which has a charter conferring a monopoly until 1910 in return for a payment of £80 per annum for each vehicle. The organization of the omnibus service is under the supervision of the prefect of the Seine. Since 1906 motor-driven omnibuses have been in use. The Compagnie Générale owns a number of tramways, and there are several other tramway companies. The cab companies, the chief of which are the Compagnie Générale des Voitures and the Compagnie Urbaine, have no monopoly. The use of the taximeter is general and motor-cabs are numerous. Cabs pay a license fee and are under the surveillance of the prefect of the Seine as regards tariff and the concession of stands. The steamers (bateaux-omnibus) of the Compagnie Générale des Bateaux Parisiens ply on the Seine between Charenton and Suresnes.
The great railways of France, with the exception of the Midi railway, have terminal stations in Paris. The principal stations of the northern, eastern and western systems (that of the latter known as the Gare St Lazare) lie near the outer boulevards in the north-centre of the city; the terminus of the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway is in the south-east, close to the right bank of the Seine; opposite to it, on the left bank, is the station du Quai d’Austerlitz, and on the Quai d’Orsay the Gare du Quai d’Orsay, both belonging to the Orléans railway. The Gare Montparnasse, to the south-west of the Luxembourg, is used by the western and the state railways. Other less important stations are the Gare de Vincennes (line of the eastern railway to Vincennes), the Gares du Luxembourg and de Paris-Denfert (line of the Orleans railway to Sceaux and Limours), and the Gare des Invalides (line of western railway to Versailles).
Railway communication round Paris is afforded by the Chemin de Fer de Ceinture, which has some thirty stations along the line of ramparts or near it. The Métropolitain, an electric railway begun in 1898, and running chiefly underground, has a line traversing Paris from east to west (Porte Maillot to the Cours de Vincennes) and a line following the outer boulevards; within the ring formed by the latter there are transverse lines.
Streets.—The total length of the thoroughfares of Paris exceeds 600 m. For the most part, and especially in the business and industrial quarters where traffic is heavy and incessant, they are paved with stone, Yvette sandstone from the neighbourhood of Paris being the chief material. Wood and macadam come next in importance to stone, and there is a small proportion of asphalte roadway. The upkeep and cleansing is under the supervision of a branch of the department of public works (service technique de la voie publique et de l’éclairage), and for this purpose the city is divided into sections, each comprising two or three arrondissements. All streets having a width of 25 ft. or more are planted with rows of trees, chestnuts and planes being chiefly used for this purpose, and in many of the wide thoroughfares there are planted strips down the middle.
The upkeep (exclusive of cleansing) of the thoroughfares cost about £500,000, towards which the state, as usual, contributed £120,000 and the department £16,000. In the same year the cleansing cost about £450,000. The original cost of paving a street is borne by the owners of the property bordering it; but in the case of avenues of exceptional width they bear only a proportion of the outlay. Payments are exacted in return for the right to erect newspaper kiosks, &c., to place chairs and tables on the footways and similar concessions.
Water.—The water and sewage system of Paris is supervised by a branch of the public works department (bureau des eaux, canaux et assainissement). The water supply comprises a domestic supply of spring water and a supply for industrial and street cleansing purposes, derived from rivers and artesian wells. The domestic supply, which averaged 55,000,000 gallons daily in 1905, has three sources of origin:—
1. The springs of the Dhuis, to the east of Paris, whence the water is conveyed by an aqueduct 82 m. in length to a reservoir in the quarter of Ménilmontant.
2. The springs of the Vanne, south-east of Paris, whence the water comes by an aqueduct 108 m. in length to a reservoir near Montsouris Park. The springs of the Loing and Lunain, south-east of Paris, also supply the Montsouris reservoir.
3. The springs of the Avre, near Verneuil, to the west of the city, the aqueduct from which is 63 m. in length and ends at the St Cloud reservoir.
In addition, filtering installations at the pumping station of Ivry, St Maur and elsewhere make it possible to supplement the domestic supply with river water in hot summers.
Water for public and industrial purposes is obtained (1) from pumping stations at Ivry and other points on the banks of the Seine, and at St Maur on the Marne; (2) from the Ourcq canal, which starts at Mareuil on the Ourcq and ends in the Villette basin; (3) from artesian wells and the aqueduct of Arcueil from Rungis, the latter being of trifling importance. The water is stored in reservoirs in the higher localities of the city, which for the purposes of distribution is divided into zones of altitude; thus the water from the Vanne, stored at the Montsouris reservoir at an altitude of only 260 ft., is supplied to the central and lowest part of the city. The upper parts of the quarters of Montmartre, Belleville and Montrouge being too high to benefit by the supply from the ordinary reservoirs, are supplied from elevated reservoirs, to which the water is pumped by special works.
The water is distributed throughout the city by two systems: the low or variable pressure, carrying the river water for use in the streets, courts and industrial premises; the high pressure, taking the spring water to the various floors of buildings, and supplying hydraulic lifts, drinking fountains and fire-plugs. The total length of pipes is nearly 1600 m. The water arrives in all cases from two different directions, so that in case of accident the interruptions of the supply may be reduced to a minimum. Consumers are supplied by meter (compteur) at a price of 35 centimes the cubic metre (domestic supply) and at a minimum charge of 16 centimes for river water. In its dealings with individuals the municipality is represented by a company (Compagnie générale des eaux), which acts as a collecting agent and receives a commission on the takings. Its charter expires at the end of 1910. In 1905, for the first time, the gross takings reached £800,000.
Drainage.—The drainage system of Paris comprises four main collectors, with a length in all of nearly 20 m.; 27 m. of secondary collectors and several hundred miles of ordinary sewers. Its capacity is such that the Seine (except in certain cases of exceptional pressure, such as sudden and violent storms) is kept free from sewage water, which is utilized on sewage farms. The larger sewers, which vary between 9 and 20 ft. in width, are bordered by ledges, between which the water runs, and are cleansed by means of slides exactly fitting the channel and mounted on wagons or boats propelled by the force of the stream. Of the main collectors, that serving the north-eastern quarters of the city and debouching in the Seine at St Denis is the longest (712 m.). The other main sewers converge at Clichy, on the right bank of the Seine, where a powerful elevator forces the sewage partly across the bridge, partly through a tunnel acting as a syphon below the river-level, to the left bank. Thence part of it is distributed over the estate of Gennevilliers, from which it returns purified, after having fertilized the plots, to the Seine. At Colombes a second elevator drives the surplus unused sewage to the hills above Argenteuil (right bank), where begins a conduit extending westwards. This conveys a portion of the sewage to a third elevator at Pierrelaye, whence it is distributed on the hills of Méry and the remainder to the Pare d’Achères (left bank), the irrigation fields of Carrières-sous-Poissy (right bank), and finally those of Mureaux, opposite Meulan. Certain parts of Paris lie too low for their drains to run into the main sewers, and special elevators are required to raise the sewage of the districts of Bercy, Javel and the Cité. The sewers are used as conduits for water-pipes, gas-pipes, telegraph and telephone wires and pneumatic tubes.
Lighting.—Gas-lighting in Paris is in the hands of a company whose operations are supervised and directed by municipal engineers. The company pays to the municipality an annual sum of £8000 for the privilege of laying pipes in the streets and 2 centimes for every cubic metre of gas consumed; in addition, the profits of the company, after a fixed dividend has been paid on the stock, are divided with the municipality. The company is bound to supply gas at 30 centimes per cubic metre to private consumers and at half that price for public services. In 1905 the total sum paid by the company amounted to nearly £1,000,000. It was provided that on the expiration of its charter the plant should be made over to the municipality. Electric light is supplied by a number of companies, to each of which in return for certain payments a segment (secteur électrique) of the city is assigned, though the concession carries with it no monopoly; the municipality has an electrical station of its own beneath the central markets.
Law and Justice (see France: Justice, for an account of the judicial system of the country as a whole).—Paris is the seat of four courts having jurisdiction over all France: (1) the Tribunal des Conflits, for settling disputes between the judicial and administrative authorities on questions as to their respective jurisdiction; (2) the Council of State, which includes a section for cases of litigation between private persons and public departments; (3) the Cour des Comptes; and (4) the Cour de Cassation. The first three sit in the Palais Royal, the fourth in the Palais de Justice, which is also the seat of (1) a cour d’appel for seven departments (seven civil chambers, one chamber of appeal for the correctional police, one chamber for preliminary proceedings); (2) a cour d’assises; (3) a tribunal of first instance for the department of Seine, comprising seven chambers for civil affairs, four chambers of correctional police; (4) a police court where each juge de paix presides in his turn assisted by a commissaire de police. Litigations between the departmental or municipal administrations and private persons are decided by the conseil de préfecture. Besides these courts there are conseils de prud’hommes and a tribunal of commerce. The conseils de prud’hommes settle differences between workmen and workmen, or between workmen and masters; the whole initiative, however, rests with the parties. There are four of these bodies in Paris (for the metal trades, the chemical trades, the textile trades and building industries), composed of an equal number of masters and men. The tribunal of commerce, sitting in a building opposite the Palais de Justice, is composed of business men elected by the “notables” of their order, and deals with cases arising out of commercial transactions; declarations of bankruptcy are made before it; it also acts as registrar of trademarks and of articles of association of companies; and as court of appeal to the conseils de prud’hommes.
Prisons.—There are three places of detention in Paris—the Dépot of the prefecture of police (in the Palais de Justice), where persons arrested and not released by the commissaries of police are temporarily confined, the Conciergerie or maison de justice, for the reception of prisoners accused of crimes, who are there submitted to a preliminary examination before the president of the court of assizes, and the Santé (near the Place Denfert-Rochereau), for prisoners awaiting trial and for remanded prisoners. The old prisons of Mazas, Ste Pélagie and La Grande-Roquette, the demolition of which was ordered in 1894, have been replaced by the prison of Fresnes-lès-Rungis for condemned prisoners. The prisoners, kept in solitary confinement, are divided into three groups: those undergoing short sentences, those sentenced to hard labour while awaiting transference to their final place of detention or to sentences over a year, and sick prisoners occupying the central infirmary of the prison. The Petit Roquette (occupied by children) was replaced by the agricultural and horticultural colony of Montesson, inaugurated in 1896.
Education (see also France).—In 1905 there were 170 public écoles maternelles (kindergartens) with 57,000 pupils, and 48 private schools of the kind with 7800 pupils, besides a certain number of écoles enfantines, exclusively managed, as are the écoles maternelles. by women, and serving as a link between the latter and the écoles primaires, for timid and backward children of from 6 to 8 years of age. There were 374 public primary schools with 173,000 pupils, while over 63,000 children were educated in private primary schools. Subsidiary to the primary schools are the caisses des écoles (school treasuries), which give clothing, &c., to indigent children and maintain the cantines scolaires for the provision of hot mid-day meals; the classes de garde and the garderies, which look after children beyond the ordinary school hours; the classes de vacances, school camps and school colonies for children during the holidays; and the internats primaires, which for a small payment board; and lodge children whose parents or guardians are unable to do so satisfactorily.
The higher primary schools (écoles primaires supérieures), which give a course of 3 or 4 years, number 86 for boys (Collège Chaptal,[6] écoles, J. B. Say, Turgot, Colbert, Lavoisier, Arago) and two for girls (Sophie Germain and Edgar Quinet). Supplementary courses take the place of these schools for children who can afford two years at most for schooling after leaving the primary school. Side by side with the higher primary school, the teaching in which has a commercial rather than an industrial bias, are the écoles professionelles, technical schools for the training of craftsmen. The École Diderot trains pupils in wood- and iron-working; the École Germain Pilon teaches practical drawing, and the École Barnard Palissy teaches applied art; the École Boulle trains cabinet-makers, and the École Estienne teaches all the processes connected with book-production. The school of physics and chemistry imparts both theoretical and practical knowledge of these sciences. The École Dorian is a school of the same type as the École Diderot, but is intended for very poor children, who are received from the age of seven and boarded and lodged. Six écoles ménagères train girls in the duties and employments of their sex. The municipality also provides gratuitous popular courses in scientific and historical subjects at the Hôtel de Ville, and there are numerous private associations giving courses of instruction (the Philotechnic Association, the Polytechnic Association, the Union française de la jeunesse, &c.). Teachers for the elementary primary schools are recruited from two training colleges in the city.
Secondary and Higher Education.—There are 13 lycées for boys and a municipal college—the Collège Rollin. These give classical and modern courses, and usually have classes preparing pupils for one or more of the government schools. For girls there are five lycées.
The five faculties of medicine, law, science, literature and Protestant theology, and the higher school of pharmacy, form the body of faculties, the association of which is known as the University of Paris. The faculties of science and literature, together with their library, are established at the Sorbonne, which is also the seat of the académie, of which Paris is the centre, and of the École des chartes. The faculty of medicine with its laboratories (école pratique) occupies separate buildings near the Sorbonne. The law school is also close to the Sorbonne. Of the 12,600 students at the university in 1905–1906 some 1260 were foreigners, Russians and Rumanians being most numerous among the latter. The faculty of law is the most largely attended, some 6000 students being enrolled therein. The Collège de France, founded by Francis I. and situated opposite the Sorbonne, gives instruction of a popular kind to adults of the general public; the various branches of learning are represented by over 40 chairs. The Museum d’histoire naturelle gives instruction in the natural sciences; the École pratique des hautes études, whose students are instructed at the Sorbonne and other scientific establishments in the city, has for its object the encouragement of scientific research. In addition, there are several great national schools attached to various ministries. Dependent on the ministry of education are the École normale supérieure, for the training of teachers in lycées; the École des chartes (palaeography and the use of archives); the École spéciale des langues orientales, for the training of interpreters; the École nationale et spéciale des beaux-arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, &c.), in the various departments of which are conferred the prix de Rome, entitling their winners to a four years’ period of study in Italy; the Conservatoire national de musique et de déclamation (music and acting), which also confers a grand prix and possesses a fine library and collection of musical instruments; the École nationale des arts decoratifs (art applied to the artistic industries); the École du Louvre, for the instruction of directors of museums. Depending on the ministry of war are the École polytechnique, which trains military, governmental and civil engineers; the École supérieure de guerre (successor of the officers’ training school, founded in 1751) for advanced military studies. Attached to the ministry of commerce and industry are the École centrale des arts et manufactures for the training of industrial engineers, works managers, &c.; the Conservatoire des arts et métiers, which has a rich museum of industrial inventions and provides courses in science as applied to the arts. The Institut national agronomique, a higher school of scientific agriculture, is dependent on the ministry of agriculture, and the École coloniale for the instruction both of natives of French colonies and of colonial functionaries, on the ministry of the colonies. The École nationale des ponts et chaussées for the training of government engineers, and the École nationale supérieure des mines for mining engineers, are under the minister of public works. Of free institutions of higher education the most prominent are the Catholic institute, with faculties of law and theology and schools of advanced literary and scientific studies, the Pasteur institute, founded by Pasteur in 1886 and famous for the treatment of hydrophobia and for its research-laboratories, and the school of political science which prepares candidates for political and governmental careers. The two latter receive state subvention. There are numerous private associations giving courses of instruction, the more important being the Philotechnic Association, the Polytechnic Association and the Union française de la jeunesse.
Among the numerous learned societies of Paris the first in importance is the Institut de France (see Academies). The French Association for the advancement of the sciences, founded in 1872, is based on the model of the older British society, and, like it, meets every year in a different town.
In art Paris has long held a leading place. The Société des Artistes français holds an annual salon or exhibition in May and June at the Palais d’Industrie. It is open to artists of all nationalities. Works are selected and awards (including the Prix de Rome) made by a jury of experts selected by the exhibitors. The society was founded in 1872, but the salon takes its name from the academy exhibitions, which, first held in the Palais Royal in 1667, were transferred to the Salon Carre in the Louvre in 1669. As a result of dissension over the awards of 1889, the society of fine arts (Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts) established a separate salon, in the Champ de Mars, in May, June and July. There is also a Société du Salon d’Automne.
Charity.—The administration of public charity is entrusted to a responsible director, under the authority of the Seine prefect, and assisted by a board of supervision, the members of which are nominated by the president. The funds at his disposal are derived (1) from the revenue of certain estates, houses, farms, woods, stocks, shares; (2) from taxes on seats in the theatres (one-tenth of the price), balls, concerts, the mont de piété, and allotments in the cemeteries; (3) from the municipal subsidy; (4) from other sources (including voluntary donations). The charges on the administration consist of (1) the treatment of the sick in the hospitals; (2) the lodging of old men and of incurables in the hospices; (3) the support of charity children; (4) the distribution of out-door relief (secours à domicile) by the bureaux de bienfaisance; (5) the dispensation of medical assistance à domicile.
The doctors, surgeons, chemists, both resident and non-resident, connected with the numerous hospitals, are all admitted by competitive examination. They are assisted by three grades of students, internes (who receive a salary), externes and stagiaires (probationers).
Of the hospices and similar institutions, the following are the chief: Bicêtre (men), less than a mile south of the fortifications; La Salpétrière (women), Ivry (both sexes); maisons de retraite (for persons not without resources) Issy, La Rochefoucauld, Ste Périne; fondations (privately endowed institutions)—Brézins at Garches (for ironworkers), Devillas, Chardon-Lagache, Lenoir-Jousseran, Galignani (booksellers, printers, &c.), Alquier-Debrousse; and sections for the insane—Bicêtre (men), Salpétrière (women), these being distinct from the ordinary departmental asylums controlled by the prefect.
Foundlings and orphans are sent to the Hospice des enfants assistés, which also receives children whose parents are patients in the hospitals or undergoing imprisonment. This institution is not intended as a permanent home. Infants are not kept in the institution, but are boarded out with nurses in the country; the older ones are boarded out with families or placed in technical schools. Up to thirteen years of age the children are kept at the expense of the department of Seine, after which they are apprenticed.
The following establishments in or near Paris belong to the nation and are dependent on the ministry of the interior: The Quinze-Vingts gives shelter to the 300 blind for whom it was founded by St Louis, and gives outdoor assistance besides. The blind asylum for the young (Institution des jeunes aveugles) has 250 pupils of both sexes. The deaf-mute institution (Institution nationale des sourds-muets) is for boys only, and they are generally paid for by the state, the departments and the communes. The Charenton asylum is for the insane. Those of Vincennes (for male patients) and Le Vesinet (for female patients) take in convalescents from the hospitals. The Vacassy asylum at Charenton is for workmen incapacitated by accident. The Hôtel des invalides is for old and infirm soldiers. Private bodies also maintain a great number of institutions.
Religion.—Some 75% of the population of Paris is Roman Catholic. The department of Seine forms the diocese of the archbishop of Paris, and the city is divided into 70 parishes. It has the important higher ecclesiastical seminary of St Sulpice, two lower seminaries and others for training the clergy for missionary and colonial work. Paris is also the seat of the central council of the Reformed Church and of the executive committee of the General Synod of the Lutheran Church, and forms a consistory of both these churches, whose adherents together number about 90,000. There are also some 50,000 Jews, Paris being the seat of the Grand Rabbinate of France and of the central consistory.
Industries.—The larger manufacturing establishments of Paris comprise engineering and repairing works connected with the railways, similar private works, foundries and sugar refineries. Government works are the tobacco factories of Gros Caillou and Reuilly, depending on the ministry of finance; the national printing establishment, under the ministry of justice; the mint (with a collection of medals and coins), established in an 18th century building close to the Pont Neuf and under the control of the ministry of finance; and the famous tapestry factory and dye-works (with a tapestry museum) of the Gobelins, under the minister of education. The list of minor establishments is varied, most of them being devoted to the production of the so-called articles de Paris (feathers, artificial flowers, dolls, toys and fancy goods in general), and carrying the principle of the division of labour to an extreme. The establishments which rank next to those above mentioned in the number of workmen are the pharmaceutical factories, the gasworks, the printing-offices, cabinet-makers’ workshops, tailoring and dressmaking establishments (very numerous) and hat factories.
The textile industries hardly exist in Paris; there are a few tanneries on the Bièvre, but the leather industry is chiefly represented by the production of morocco leather goods classed as articles de Paris. Mention may be made here of the bureaux de placement gratuit, maintained by the municipality, where those in search of work or workers are put in touch with one another.
Markets.—The slaughter-houses, cattle-yards, and with few exceptions the markets of Paris, belong to the municipality. The chief slaughter-house is the abattoir général of La Villette, covering a space of 47 acres in the extreme north-east of the city on the bank of the Canal de l’Ourcq; adjoining it, with an area of about 55 acres, on the opposite bank of the canal, are the municipal cattle-yards and markets, which have accommodation for many thousands of animals, and are connected with the Ceinture railway so that the cattle-trucks are brought straight into the market. Cattle-traders and butchers pay dues for the use of these establishments. There are other less extensive slaughter-yards at Vaugirard. Most of the cattle come from Calvados, Maine-et-Loire, Vaucluse, Nièvre, Loire-Inférieure and Orne; sheep from Seine-et-Marne, Aveyron, Aisne, Seine-et-Oise, Lot and Cantal; pigs from Loire-Inférieure and other western departments; calves from Loiret, Eure-et-Loir and others of the northern departments. Dead meat, game, poultry, fruit, vegetables, fish and the other food-supplies have their centre of wholesale distribution at the Halles Centrales, close to the Louvre, which comprise besides a large uncovered space a number of pavilions of iron and glass covering some 10 acres. Close to the Halles is the Bourse de Commerce, which is a centre for transactions in alcohol, wheat, rye and oats, flour, oil and sugar; and a market for flour, the trade in which is more important than that in wheat, is held in the Place St Germain l’Auxerrois, sales being effected chiefly by the medium of samples. Most of the wines and spirits consumed in Paris pass through the entrepôts of Bercy and the wine-market on the Quai St Bernard, the first specially connected with the wine-trade, the second with the brandy-trade. In addition, there are other provision markets in various quarters of the city, owned and supervised by the municipality, as well as numerous flower-markets, bird-markets, a market for horses, carriages, bicycles and dogs, &c. Two fairs are still held in Paris—the foire aux jambons in the Boulevard Richard Lenoir during Holy week, and the foire au pain d’épices in the Place de la Nation and its vicinity at Easter time. Market and market-places are placed under the double supervision of the prefect of Seine and the prefect of police. The former official has to do with the authorization, removal, suppression, and holding of the markets, the fixing and collecting of the dues, the choice of sites, the erection and maintenance of buildings, and the location of vehicles. The latter maintains order, keeps the roads clear, and watches against fraud. There is a municipal laboratory, where any purchaser can have the provisions he has bought analysed, and can obtain precise information as to their quality. Spoiled provisions are seized by the agents of the prefecture.
The Chamber of Commerce occupies a building close to the Bourse.
Bibliography.—P. Joanne, Dictionnaire géographique et administratif de la France, vol. v. (Paris, 1899,), s.v. “Paris,” a comprehensive and detailed account from the topographical, administrative and historical points of view; M. Block, Dictionnaire de l’administration française, vol. ii. (Paris, 1905), s.v. “Paris”; Annuaire statistique de la ville de Paris, issued by the Service de la statistique municipale, Baedeker’s Paris; T. Okey, The Story of Paris (London, 1906); W. F. Lonergen, Historic Churches of Paris (London, 1896); G. Pessard, Nouveau dictionnaire historique de Paris (Paris, 1904); E. Fournier, Paris à travers les âges (Paris, 1876–1882); C. Normand, Nouvel itinéraire-guide artistique et archéologique de Paris (Paris, 1889), &c. (R. Tr.)
History.—At its first appearance in history there was nothing to foreshow the important part which Paris was to play in Europe and in the world. An island in the Seine, now almost lost in the modern city, and then much smaller than at present, was for centuries the entire site. The sole importance of the town lay in its being the capital of a similarly insignificant Gallic people, which navigated the lower course of the Seine, and doubtless from time to time visited the coasts of Britain. So few were its inhabitants that they early put themselves under the protection of their powerful neighbours, the Senones, and this vassalship was the source of the political dependence of Paris on Sens throughout the Roman period, and of a religious subordination which lasted till the 17th century. The capital did not at once take the name of the Parisii, whose centre it was, but long kept that of Lucetia, Lucotetia or Lutetia, of which Lutèce is the generally recognized French form.
During the War of Gallic Independence, after being subjugated by Caesar, who even in 53 B.C. made their territory the meeting-place of deputies from all Gaul, the Parisii took part in the great rising of the year 52, at the same time separating their cause from that of the Senones, who were held in check by Caesar’s lieutenant, Labienus. They joined their forces to the army commanded by an Aulercian, the old Camulogenus, which in turn was to unite with the Bellovaci to crush Labienus advancing from Sens to attack the Parisians. Having marched along the right bank of the river till opposite Lutetia, Labienus learned that the Bellovaci were in arms, and, fearing to find himself between two armies at a distance from his headquarters, he sought to get rid of Camulogenus, who, posted on the left bank, endeavoured to bar his way. The bridges had been cut and the town burned by order of the Gallic chief. By means of a stratagem Labienus drew his opponent up the river to the district now occupied by the Jardin des Plantes, and quietly by night crossed the Seine lower down in the neighbourhood of Grenelle, near a place which Caesar calls Metiosedum, identified, but not conclusively, with Meudon. The Gauls, retracing their steps a little, met the Romans and allowed themselves to be routed and dispersed; their leader fell in the fore-front of the battle. Still unsubdued, the Parisii were called upon by the general council assembled in Alesia to furnish eight thousand men to help in raising the siege of that city. It is doubtful whether they were able to contribute the whole of this contingent, when their powerful neighbours the Bellovaci managed to send only two thousand of the ten thousand demanded of them. This was their last effort, and after the check at Alesia they took no part in the desperate resistance offered by the Bellovaci.
Lutetia was somewhat neglected under the Roman emperors of the first centuries. Its inhabitants continued quietly carrying on their river traffic, and devoted part of their wealth to the maintenance of a great temple to Jupiter built on the site of the present cathedral of Notre Dame. It is not known at what date Christianity was introduced into the future capital of France; but it is probable, judging by the use of the title “city,” that Lutetia was the see of one of the earliest of the bishoprics of Gallia Celtica. The name of the founder of the church is known, but a keen controversy, not yet settled, has recently been raised with regard to the date when the first Roman missionary, St Dionysius or Denis, reached the banks of the Seine, along with his two deacons, Rusticus and Eleutherius. A pious belief, which, in spite of its antiquity, has its origin in nothing better than parochial vanity, identifies the first-named with Dionysius the Areopagite, who was converted by St Paul at Athens, and thus takes us back to the middle of the 1st century of the Christian era. Better founded in the opinion which dates the evangelization of the city two centuries later; the regular list of bishops, of whom, after Denis, the most famous was St Marcel, begins about 250.
Lutetia was in some sort the cradle of Christian liberty, having been the capital, from 292 to 306, of the mild Constantius Chlorus, who put an end to persecution in Brittany, Gaul and Spain, over which he ruled. This emperor fixed his residence on the banks of the Seine, doubtless for the purpose of watching the Germans without losing sight of Brittany, where the Roman authority was always unstable; perhaps he also felt something of the same fancy for Lutetia which Julian afterwards expressed in his works and his letters. Be that as it may, the fact that these two princes chose to live there naturally drew attention to the city, where several buildings now rose on the left side of the river which could not have been reared within the narrow boundaries of the island. There was the imperial palace, the remains of which, a magnificent vaulted chamber, beside the Hôtel de Cluny, are now known, probably correctly, as Julian’s Baths. At some distance up the river, in the quarter of St Victor, excavations in 1870 and in 1883 laid bare the foundations of the amphitheatre, which was capable of holding about 10,000 spectators, and thus suggests the existence of a population of 20,000 to 25,000 souls. Dwelling-houses, villas, and probably also an extensive cemetery, occupied the slope of the hill of St Geneviève.
It was at Lutetia that, in 360, Julian, already Caesar, was in spite of himself proclaimed Augustus by the legions he had more than once led to victory in Germany. The troops invaded his palace, which, to judge by various circumstances of the mutiny, must have been of great extent. As for the city itself, it was as yet but a little town (πολίχνη) according to the imperial author in his Misopogon. The successive sojourns of Valentinian I. and Gratian scarcely increased its importance. The latest emperors preferred Trèves, Arles, and Vienne in Gaul, and, besides, allowed Paris, about 410, to be absorbed by the powerful Armorican league. When the patricians, Aetius, Aegidius and Syagrius, held almost independent sway over the small portion of Gaul which still held together, they dwelt at Soissons, and it was there that Clovis fixed himself during the ten or eleven years between the defeat of Syagrius (486) and the surrender of Paris (497), which opened its gates, at the advice of St Geneviève, only after the conversion of the Frankish king. In 508, at the return of his victorious expedition against the south, Clovis made Paris the official capital of his realm—Cathedram regni constituit, says Gregory of Tours. He chose as his residence the palace of the Thermae, and lost no time in erecting on the summit of the hill, as his future place of interment, the basilica of St Peter and St Paul, which became not long afterwards the church and abbey of St Geneviève. After the death of Clovis, in spite of the supremacy granted to the kingdom of Austrasia, or Metz, Paris remained the true political centre of the various Frankish states, insomuch that the four sons of Clothaire, fearing the prestige which would attach to whoever of them might possess it, made it a sort of neutral town, though after all it was seized by Sigebert, king of Austrasia, Chilperic, king of Neustria (who managed to keep possession for some time, and repaired the amphitheatre), and Guntram, king of Burgundy. The last sovereign had to defend himself in 585 against the pretender Gondovald, whose ambition aspired to uniting the whole of Gaul under his dominion, and marching on Paris to make it the seat of the half-barbarian half-Roman administration of the kingdom of which he had dreamed.
Numerous calamities befell Paris from 586, when a terrible conflagration took place, to the close of the Merovingian dynasty. During a severe famine Bishop Landry sold the church plate to alleviate the distress of the people, and it was probably he who, in company with St Eloi (Eligius), founded the Hôtel Dieu. The kings in the long run almost abandoned the town, especially when the Austrasian influence under the mayors of the palace tended to shift the centre of the Frankish power towards the Rhine.
Though the Merovingian period was for art a time of the deepest decadence, Paris was nevertheless adorned and enriched by pious foundations. Mention has already been made of the abbey of St Peter, which became after the death of Clovis the abbey of St Geneviève. On the same side of the river, but in the valley, Childebert, with the assistance of Bishop St Germain, founded St Vincent, known a little later as St Germain-des-Prés, which was the necropolis of the Frankish kings before St Denis. On the right bank the same king built St Vincent le Rond (afterwards St Germain l’Auxerrois), and in La Cité, beside the cathedral of St Etienne, the basilica of Notre Dame, which excited the admiration of his contemporaries, and in the 12th century obtained the title of cathedral. Various monasteries were erected on both sides of the river, and served to group in thickly-peopled suburbs the population, which had grown too large for the island.
The first Carolingian, Pippin the Short, occasionally lived at Paris, sometimes in the palace of Julian, sometimes in the old palace of the Roman governors of the town, at the lower end of the island; the latter ultimately became the usual residence. Under Charlemagne Paris ceased to be capital; and under Charles the Bald it became the seat of mere counts. But the invasions of the Northmen attracted general attention to the town, and showed that its political importance could no longer be neglected. When the suburbs were pillaged and burned by the pirates, and the city regularly besieged in 885, Paris was heroically defended by its “lords,” and the emperor Charles the Fat felt bound to hasten from Germany to its relief. The pusillanimity which he showed in purchasing the retreat of the Normans was the main cause of his deposition in 887, while the courage displayed by Count Odo, or Eudes, procured him the crown of France; Robert, Odo’s brother, succeeded him; and, although Robert’s son, Hugh the Great, was only duke of France and count of Paris, his power counterbalanced that of the last of the Carolingians, shut up in Laon as their capital.
With Hugh Capet in 987 the capital of the duchy of France definitively became the capital of the kingdom, and in spite of the frequent absence of the kings, several of whom preferred to reside at Orleans, the town continued to increase in size and population, and saw the development of those institutions which were destined to secure its greatness. Henry I. founded the abbey of St Martin-des-Champs, Louis VI. that of St Victor, the mother-house of an order, and a nursery of literature and theology. Under Louis VII. the royal domain was the scene of one of the greatest artistic revolutions recorded in history: the Romanesque style of architecture was exchanged for the Pointed or Gothic, of which Suger, in his reconstruction of the basilica of St Denis, exhibited the earliest type. The capital could not remain aloof from this movement; several sumptuous buildings were erected; the Romanesque choir of St Germain-des-Prés was thrown down to give place to another more spacious and elegant; and when, in 1163, Pope Alexander III. had solemnly consecrated it, he was invited by Bishop Maurice de Sully to lay the first stone of Notre Dame de Paris, a cathedral on a grander scale than any previously undertaken. Paris still possesses the Romanesque nave of St Germain-des-Prés, preserved when the building was rebuilt in the 12th century; the Pointed choir, consecrated in 1163; and the entire cathedral of Notre Dame, which, completed sixty years later, underwent various modifications down to the beginning of the 14th century. The sacristy is modern; the site previous to 1831 was occupied by the episcopal palace, also built by Maurice de Sully, who by a new street had opened up this part of the island. It was Louis VII. also who granted to the Templars the piece of marshland on the left bank of the Seine on which the Paris Temple,[7] the headquarters of the order in Europe, was built (see Templars).
Philip Augustus may be considered the second founder of Paris. He seldom quitted it save for his military expeditions, and he there built for himself, near St Germain l’Auxerrois, the Louvre, the royal dwelling par excellence, whose keep was the official centre of feudalism. He created or organized a regular system of administration, with its headquarters at Paris; and under his patronage the public lectures delivered at Pré-aux-Clercs were regulated and grouped under the title of a university in 1200.
This university, the most famous and flourishing in Christendom, considerably augmented the local population, and formed as it were a new town on the left side of the river, where the great fortified precincts of the Templars, the important abbeys of Ste Geneviève, St Germain-des-Prés and St Victor, and a vast Carthusian monastery already stood. Colleges were erected to receive the students of the different countries, and became the great meeting-place of the studious youth of all Europe.
The right side of the river, where commerce and industry had taken up their abode, and where the Louvre, the abbey of St Martin, and a large number of secondary religious establishments were already erected, became a centre of activity at least as important as that on the left. The old suburbs, too, were now incorporated with the town and enclosed in the new line of fortifications constructed by Philip Augustus, which, however, did not take in the great abbeys on the left side of the river, and thus obliged them to build defensive works of their own.
Philip Augustus issued from the Louvre a celebrated order, that the streets of the town should be paved. Not far from his palace, on the site of the present Halles Centrales, he laid out an extensive cemetery and a market-place, which both took their name from the Church of the Innocents, a building of the same reign, destroyed at the Revolution. Fountains were placed in all the quarters. As for the lighting of the town, till the close of the 16th century the only lamps were those in front of the madonnas at the street corners. But the first “illumination” of Paris occurred under Philip Augustus: on his return from a victorious expedition to Flanders in 1214 he was welcomed by the Parisians as a conqueror; and the public rejoicings lasted for seven days, “interrupted by no night,” says the chronicler, alluding to the torches and lamps with which the citizens lighted up the fronts of their houses. Ferrand, count of Flanders, the traitor vassal, was dragged behind the king to the dungeons of the Louvre.
In 1226 there was held at Paris a council which, by excommunicating Raymond VII., count of Toulouse, helped to prepare the way for the most important treaty which had as yet been signed in the capital. By this treaty (April 12, 1229) the regent, Blanche of Castile, the widow of Louis VIII., obtained from Raymond VII. a great part of his possessions, while the remainder was secured to the house of Capet through the marriage of Alphonse of Poitiers, brother of St Louis, with Jeanne, the heiress of Languedoc.
In affection for his capital St Louis equalled, or even surpassed, his grandfather Philip, and Paris reciprocated his goodwill. The head of the administration was at that time the provost of Paris, a judiciary magistrate and police functionary whose extensive powers had given rise to the most flagrant abuses. Louis IX. reformed this office and filled it with the judge of greatest integrity to be found in his kingdom. This was the famous Étienne Boileau, who showed such vigilance and uprightness that the capital was completely purged of evildoers; the sense of security thus produced attracted a certain number of new inhabitants, and, to the advantage of the public revenue, increased the value of the trade. It was Étienne Boileau who, by the king’s express command, drew up those statutes of the commercial and industrial gilds of Paris which, modified by the necessities of new times and the caprice of princes, remained in force till the Revolution.
St Louis caused a partial restoration of St Germain l’Auxerrois, his parish church (completed in the 15th century, and deplorably altered under Louis XV.); and besides preferring the palace of La Cité to the Louvre, he entirely rebuilt it, and rendered it one of the most comfortable residences of his time. Of this edifice there still remain, among the buildings of the present Palais de Justice, the great guard-room, the kitchens with their four enormous chimneys, three round towers on the quay, and; one of the marvels of the middle ages, the Sainte Chapelle, erected in 1248 to receive the crown of thorns sent from Constantinople. This church, often imitated during the 13th and 14th centuries, is like an immense shrine in open work; its large windows contain admirable stained glass of its own date, and its paintings and sculptures (restored in the 19th century by Viollet-le-Duc) give a vivid picture of the religious beliefs of the middle ages. It has a lower storey ingeniously arranged, which served as a chapel for the palace servants. The Sainte Chapelle was designed by Pierre de Montereau, one of the most celebrated architects of his time, to whom is attributed another marvel still extant, the refectory of the abbey of St Martin, now occupied by the library of the Conservatoire des Arts et des Métiers. This incomparable artist was buried in the abbey of St Germain-des-Prés, where, too, he had raised magnificent buildings now no longer existing. Under St Louis, Robert de Sorbon, a common priest, founded in 1253 an unpretending theological college which afterwards became the celebrated faculty of the Sorbonne, whose decisions were wellnigh as authoritative as those of Rome.
The capital of France had but a feeble share in the communal movement which in the north characterizes the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Placed directly under the central power, it was never strong enough to force concessions; and in truth it did not claim them, satisfied with the advantages of all kinds secured for it by its political position and its university. And, besides, the privileges which it did enjoy, while they could be revoked at the king’s pleasure, were of considerable extent. Its inhabitants were not subjected to forced labour or arbitrary imposts, and the liberty of the citizens and their commerce and industry were protected by wise regulations. The university and all those closely connected with it possessed the fullest rights and liberties. There was a municipal or bourgeois militia, which rendered the greatest service to Philip Augustus and St Louis, but afterwards became an instrument of revolt. The communal administration devolved on échevins or jurés, who, in conjunction with the notables, chose a nominal mayor called provost of the merchants (prévôt des marchands). The powers of this official had been grievously curtailed in favour of the provost of Paris and his lieutenants, named by the sovereign. His main duties were to regulate the price of provisions and to control the incidence of taxation on merchandise. He was the chief inspector of bridges and public wells, superintendent of the river police, and commander of the guard of the city walls, which it was also his duty to keep in repair. And, finally, he had jurisdiction in commercial affairs until the creation of the consular tribunals by the chancellor Michel L’Hôpital. The violent attempts made by Étienne Marcel in the 14th century, and those of the communes of 1793 and 1871, showed what reason royalty had to fear too great an expansion of the municipal power at Paris.
The town council met in the 13th and 14th centuries in an unpretending house on Ste Geneviève, near the city walls on the left side of the river. The municipal assemblies were afterwards held near the Place de Grève, on the right side of the river, in the “Maison aux Piliers,” which Francis I. allowed to be replaced by an imposing hôtel de ville.
The last of the direct descendants of Capet, and the first two Valois kings did little for their capital. Philip the Fair, however, increased its political importance by making it the seat of the highest court in the kingdom, the parlement, which he organized between 1302 and 1304, and to which he surrendered a part of his cité palace. Under the three sons of Philip the Fair, the Tour de Nesle, which stood opposite, on the site now occupied by the buildings of the Institute, was the scene of frightful orgies, equally celebrated in history and romance. One of the queens, who, if the chronicles are to be trusted, took part in these expiated her crimes in Château-Gaillard, where she was strangled in 1315 by order of her husband, Louis X. During the first part of the War of the Hundred Years, Paris escaped being taken by the English, but felt the effects of the national misfortunes. Whilst destitution excited in the country the revolt of the Jacquerie, in the city the miseries of the time were attributed to the vices of the feudal system, and the citizens seemed ready for insurrection. The provost of the merchants, Étienne Marcel, equally endowed with courage and intellect, sought to turn this double movement to account in the interest of the municipal liberties of Paris and of constitutional guarantees. The cause which he supported was lost through the violence of his own acts. Not content with having massacred two ministers under the very eyes of the dauphin Charles, who was regent whilst his father John lay captive in London, he joined the Jacquerie, and was not afraid to call into Paris the king of Navarre, Charles the Bad, a notorious firebrand, who at that time was making common cause with the English. Public sentiment, at first favourable to Marcel’s schemes, shrank from open treason. A watch was set on him, and, at the moment when, having the keys of the town in his possession in virtue of his office, he was preparing to open one of the gates, he was assassinated by order of Jean Maillard, one of the heads of the milice, on the night of the 31st of July 1358. Marcel had enlarged Philip Augustus’s line of fortifications on the right side of the river, and had begun a new one.
When he became king in 1364, Charles V. forgot the outrages he had suffered at the hands of the Parisians during his regency. He robbed the Louvre to some extent of its military equipment, in order to make it a convenient and sumptuous residence; his open-work staircases and his galleries are mentioned in terms of the highest praise by writers of the time. This did not, however, remain always his favourite palace; having built or rebuilt in the St Antoine quarter the mansion of St Paul or St Pol, he was particularly fond of living in it during the latter part of his life, and it was there that he died in 1380. It was Charles V. who, in conjunction with the provost of Paris, Hugues Aubriot, erected the famous Bastille to protect the St Antoine gate as part of an enlarged scheme of fortification. A library which he founded—a rich one for the times—became the nucleus of the national library. With the exception of some of the upper portions of the Sainte Chapelle, which were altered or reconstructed by this prince or his son Charles VI., there are no remains of the buildings of Charles V.
The reign of Charles VI. was as disastrous for the city as that of his father had been prosperous. From the very accession of the new king, the citizens, who had for some time been relieved by a great reduction of the taxes, and had received a promise of further alleviation, found themselves subjected to the most odious fiscal exactions on the part of the king’s uncle, who was not satisfied with the well-stored treasury of Charles V., which he had unscrupulously pillaged. In March 1382 occurred what is called the revolt of the “Maillotins” (i.e. men with mallets). Preoccupied with his expedition against the Flemings, Charles VI. delayed putting down the revolt, and for the moment remitted the new taxes. On his victorious return on the 10th of January 1383, the Parisians in alarm drew up their forces in front of the town gates under the pretext of showing their sovereign what aid he might derive from them, but really in order to intimidate him. They were ordered to retire within the walls and to lay down their arms, and they obeyed. The king and his uncles, having destroyed the gates, made their way into Paris as into a besieged city; and with the decapitation of Desmarets, one of the most faithful servants of the Crown, began a series of bloody executions. Ostensibly through the intercession of the regents an end was put to that species of severities, a heavy fine being substituted, much larger in amount than the annual value of the abolished taxes. The municipal administration was suspended for several years, and its functions bestowed on the provost of Paris, a magistrate nominated by the Crown.
The calamities which followed were due to the weakness and incapacity of the government, given over, because of the madness of Charles VI., to the intrigues of a wicked queen and of princes who brought the most bloodthirsty passions to the service of their boundless ambition. First came the rivalry between the dukes of Orleans and Burgundy, brought to an end in 1407 by assassination of the former. Next followed the relentless struggle for supremacy between two hostile parties: the Armagnacs on one side, commanded by Count Bernard of Armagnac (who for a brief period had the title of constable), and supported by the nobles and burgesses; and on the other side the Burgundians, depending on the common people, and recognizing John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, as their head. The mob was headed by a skinner at the Hôtel Dieu called Simon Caboche, and hence the name Cabochiens was given to the Burgundian party in Paris. They became masters of Paris in 1412 and 1413; but so violent were their excesses that the most timid rose in revolt, and the decimated bourgeoisie managed by a bold stroke to recover possession of the town. The Armagnacs again entered Paris, but their intrigues with England and their tyranny rendered them odious in their turn; the Burgundians were recalled in 1418, and returned with Caboche and a formidable band of pillagers and assassins. Perrinet Leclerc, son of a bourgeois guard, secretly opened the gates to them one night in May. The king resided in the Hôtel St Paul, an unconscious spectator of those savage scenes which the princes Louis and John, successively dauphins, were helpless to prevent.
The third dauphin, Charles, afterwards Charles VII., managed to put an end to the civil war, but it was by a crime as base as it was impolitic—the assassination of John the Fearless on the bridge of Montereau in 1419. Next year a treaty, from the ignominy of which Paris happily escaped, gave a daughter of Charles VI. to Henry V. of England, and along with her, in spite of the Salic law, the crown of France. The king of England made his entry into Paris in December 1420, and was there received with a solemnity which ill concealed the misery and real consternation of the poor people crushed by fifteen years of murders, pillage and famine. Charles VI. remained almost abandoned at the Hôtel St Paul, where he died in 1422, whilst his son-in-law went to hold a brilliant court at the Louvre and Vincennes. Henry V. of England also died in 1422. His son Henry VI., then one year old, came to Paris nine years later to be crowned at Notre Dame, and the city continued under the government of the duke of Bedford till his death in 1435.
The English rule was a mild one, but it was not signalized by the execution of any of those works of utility or ornament so characteristic of the kings of France. The choir of St Severin, however, shows a style of architecture peculiarly English, and Sauval relates that the duke of Bedford erected in the Louvre a fine gallery decorated with paintings. Without assuming the mission of delivering Paris, Joan of Arc, remaining with Charles VII. after his coronation at Reims, led him towards the capital; but the badly conducted and abortive enterprise almost proved fatal to the Maid of Orleans, who was severely wounded at the assault of the gate of St Honoré on the 8th of September 1429. The siege having been raised, Charles awaited the invitation of the Parisians themselves upon the defection of the Burgundians and the surrender of St Denis. The St Jacques gate was opened by the citizens of the guard to the constable de Richemont[8] on the 13th of April 1436; but the solemn entry of the king did not take place till November of the following year; subsequently occupied by his various expeditions or attracted by his residences in Berry or Touraine, he spent but little time in Paris, where he retired either to the Hôtel St Paul or to a neighbouring palace, Les Tournelles, which had been acquired by his father.
Louis XI. made equal use of St Paul and Les Tournelles, but towards the close of his life he immured himself at Plessis-les-Tours. It was in his reign, in 1469, that the first French printing-press was set up in the Sorbonne. Charles VIII. scarcely left Plessis-les-Tours and Amboise except to go to Italy; Louis XII. alternated between the castle at Blois and the palace of Les Tournelles, where he died on the 1st of January 1515.
Francis I. lived at Chambord, at Fontainebleau, at St Germain, and at Villers-Cotterets; but he proposed to form at Paris a residence in keeping with the taste of the Renaissance. Paris had remained for more than thirty years almost a stranger to the artistic movement begun between 1498 and 1500, after the Italian expedition. Previous to 1533, the date of the commencement of the Hôtel de Ville and the church of St Eustache, Paris did not possess, apart from the “Court of Accounts,” any important building in the new style. Between 1527 and 1540 Francis I. demolished the old Louvre, and in 1541 Pierre Lescot began a new palace four times as large, which was not finished till the reign of Louis XIV. The buildings were not sufficiently advanced under Henry II. to allow of his leaving Les Tournelles, where in 1559 he died from a wound received at a tournament. His widow, Catherine de’ Medici, immediately caused this palace to be demolished, and sent her three sons—Francis II., Charles IX. and Henry III.—to the unfinished Louvre. Outside the line of the fortifications she laid the foundations of the Château des Tuileries as a residence for herself.
Of the three brothers, it was Charles IX. who resided most at the Louvre; it was there that in 1572 he signed the order for the massacre of St Bartholomew. Henry III. remained for the most part at Blois, and hardly came to Paris except to be witness of the power of his enemies, the Guises.
Taking advantage of the absence of the kings, the League had made Paris a centre of opposition. The municipal militia were restored and reorganized; each of the 16 quarters or arrondissements had to elect a deputy for the central council, which became the council, or rather faction, of The Sixteen, and for four years, from 1587 to 1591, held the city under a yoke of iron. Henry III., having come to the Louvre in 1588, unwillingly received there the duke of Guise, and while endeavouring to take measures for his own protection provoked a riot known as the Day of the Barricades (May 12). It was with difficulty that he escaped from his palace, which at that time had no communication with the country, and which Henry IV. afterwards proposed to unite with the Tuileries in order to provide a sure means of escape in case of need.
When, after the murder of the duke of Guise at Blois at the close of 1588, Henry III. desired to return to Paris, he was not yet master of the city, and was obliged to besiege it in concert with his presumptive heir, the king of Navarre. The operations were suddenly interrupted on the 1st of August 1589, by the assassination of the king, and Henry IV. carried his arms elsewhere. He returned with his victorious forces in 1590. This second siege lasted more than four years, and was marked by terrible suffering, produced by famine and the tyranny of The Sixteen, who were supported by the intrigues of the king of Spain and the violent harangues of the preachers. Even the conversion of the king did not allay the spirit of fanaticism, for the king’s sincerity was suspected, and the words (which history, however, fails to substantiate), “Paris is surely worth a mass,” were attributed to him. But after the coronation of the king at Chartres the commonalty of Paris, weary of intriguing with strangers and Leaguers, gave such decided expression to its feelings that those of its leaders who had kept aloof, or broken off from the faction of The Sixteen attached themselves to the parlement, which had already evaded the ambitious designs of the king of Spain; and after various negotiations the provost of the merchants, L’Huillier, offered the keys of the city to Henry IV. on the 22nd of March 1594. The king met no resistance except on the part of a company of German landsknechts, which was cut in pieces, and the students of the university, who, steeped in the doctrines of the League, tried to hold their quarter against the royal troops, but were dispersed. The Spanish soldiers who had remained in the town decamped next day.
Henry IV., who carried on the building of the Louvre, was the last monarch who occupied it as a regular residence. Attempts on his life were made from time to time, and at last, on the 14th of May 1610, he fell under Ravaillac’s knife near the market-house in Rue de la Ferronnerie.
Whether royalty gave it the benefit of its presence or not, Paris continued all the same to increase in political importance and in population. Here is the picture of the city presented about 1560 by Michel de Castelnau, one of the most celebrated chroniclers of the 16th century:—
“Paris is the capital of all the kingdom, and one of the most famous in the world, as well for the splendour of its parlement (which is an illustrious company of thirty judges attended by three hundred advocates and more, who have reputation in all Christendom of being the best seen in human laws and acquainted with justice) as for its faculty of theology and for the other tongues and sciences which shine more in this town than in any other in the world, besides the mechanic arts and the marvellous traffic which render it very populous, rich and opulent; in such sort that the other towns of France and all the magistrates and subjects have their eyes directed thither as to the model of their decisions and their political administrations.”
Castelnau spoke rather as a statesman and a magistrate, and did not look close enough to see that the university was beginning to decline. The progress of the sciences somewhat lessened the importance of its classes, too specially devoted to theology and literature; the eyes of men were turned towards Italy, which was then considered the great centre of intellectual advance; the colleges of the Jesuits were formidable rivals; the triumphs of Protestantism deprived it of most of the students, who used to flock to it from England, Germany and Scandinavia; and finally the unfortunate part it played in political affairs weakened its influence so much that, after the reign of Henry IV. it no longer sent its deputies to the states-general.
If the city on the left side of the river neither extended its circuit nor increased its population, it began in the 16th century to be filled with large mansions (hôtels), and its communications with the right bank were rendered easier and more direct when Henry IV. constructed across the lower end of the island of La Cité the Pont Neuf, which, though retaining its original name, is now the oldest bridge in Paris. On the right side of the river commerce and the progress of centralization continued to attract new inhabitants, and old villages become suburbs were enclosed within the line of a bastioned first enceinte, the ramparts of Étienne Marcel being, however, still left untouched. Although Louis XIII., except during his minority, rarely stayed much in Paris, he was seldom long absent from it. His mother, Mary de’ Medici, built the palace of the Luxembourg, which, after being extended under Louis Philippe, became the seat of the senate.
Louis XIII. finished, with the exception of the eastern front, the buildings enclosing the square court of the Louvre, and carried on the wing which was to join the palace to the Tuileries. Queen Anne of Austria founded the Val de Grâce, the dome of which, afterwards painted on the interior by Mignard, remains one of the finest in Paris. Richelieu built for himself the Palais Royal, since restored, and rebuilt the Sorbonne, where now stands his magnificent tomb by Girardon. The island of St Louis above La Cité, till then occupied by gardens and meadows, became a populous parish, whose streets were laid out in straight lines, and whose finest houses still date from the 17th century. Building also went on in the Quartier du Marais (quarter of the marsh); and the whole of the Place Royale (now Place des Vosges), with its curious arcaded galleries, belongs to this period. The church of St Paul and St Louis was built by the Jesuits beside the ruins of the old Hôtel St Paul; the church of St Gervais received a façade which has become in our time too famous. St Étienne du Mont and St Eustache were completed (in the latter case with the exception of the front). The beautiful Salle des Pas-Perdus (Hall of Lost Footsteps) was added to the Palais de Justice. Besides these buildings and extensions Paris was indebted to Louis XIII. and his minister Richelieu for three important institutions—the royal printing press in 1620, the Jardin des Plantes in 1626, and the French Academy in 1635. The bishopric of Paris was separated from that of Sens and erected into an archbishopric in 1623.
As memorials of Mazarin Paris still possesses the Collège des Quatre-Nations, erected with one of his legacies immediately after his death, and since appropriated to the Institute, and the palace which, enlarged in the 19th century, now accommodates the national library.
The stormy minority of Louis XIV. was spent at St Germain and Paris, where the court was held at the Palais Royal. The intrigues of the prince of Condé, Cardinal de Retz, and (for a brief space) Turenne resulted in a siege of Paris, during which more epigrams than balls were fired off; but the cannon of the Bastille, discharged by order of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, enabled Condé to enter the city. Bloody riots followed, and came to an end only with the exhaustion of the populace and its voluntary submission to the king. Though Louis XIV. ceased to stay in Paris after he grew up, he did not neglect the work of embellishment. On the site of the fortifications of Étienne Marcel, which during the previous hundred years had been gradually disappearing, he laid out the line of boulevards connecting the quarter of the Bastille with that of the Madeleine. Though he no longer inhabited the Louvre (and it never was again the seat of royalty), he caused the great colonnade to be constructed after the plans of Claude Perrault. This immense and imposing façade, 548 ft. long, has the defect of being quite out of harmony with the rest of the building, which it hides instead of introducing. The same desire for effect, altogether irrespective of congruity, appears again in the observatory erected by the same Perrault, without the smallest consideration of the wise suggestions made by Cassini. The Place Vendôme, the Place des Victoires, the triumphal gates of St Denis and St Martin and several fountains, are also productions of the reign of Louis XIV. The hospital of La Salpêtrière, with its majestically simple dome, was finished by Libéral Bruant. The Hôtel des Invalides, one of the finest institutions of the grand monarque, was also erected, with its chapel, between 1671 and 1675, by Bruant; but it was reserved for the architect Hardouin Mansart to give to this imposing edifice a complement worthy of itself: it was he who raised the dome, admirable alike for its proportions, for the excellent distribution of its ornaments, and for its gilded lantern, which rises 344 ft. above the ground. “Private persons,” says Voltaire, “in imitation of their king, raised a thousand splendid edifices. The number increased so greatly that from the neighbourhood of the Palais Royal and of St Sulpice there were formed in Paris two new towns much finer than the old one.” All the aristocracy had not thought fit to take up their residence at Versailles, and the great geniuses of the century, Corneille, Racine, La Fontaine, Molière, Madame de Sévigné, had their houses in Paris; there also was the Hôtel de Rambouillet, so famous in the literary history of the 17th century.
The halls of the Palais Royal during the minority of Louis XV. were the scene of the excesses of the regency; later on the king from time to time resided at the Tuileries, which henceforward came to be customarily regarded as the official seat of the monarchy. To the reign of Louis XV. are due the rebuilding of the Palais Royal, the “Place” now called De la Concorde, the military school, the greater part of the church of Ste Geneviève, or Panthéon (a masterpiece of the architect Soufflot), the church of St Roch, the palace of the Élysée (now the residence of the president of the republic), the Palais Bourbon (with the exception of the façade), now occupied by the chamber of deputies, and the mint, a majestic and scholarly work by the architect Antoine, as well as the rebuilding of the Collège de France.
Louis XVI. finished or vigorously carried on the works begun by his grandfather. He did not come to live in Paris till compelled by the Revolution. That historical movement began indeed at Versailles on the 17th of June 1789, when the states-general were transformed into a constituent assembly; but the first act of violence which proved the starting-point of all its excesses was performed in Paris on the 14th of July 1789 when Paris inaugurated, with the capture of the Bastille, its “national guard,” organized and then commanded by the celebrated La Fayette. At the same time the assassination of the last provost of the merchants, Jacques de Flesselles, gave the opportunity of establishing, with more extended powers, the mairie (mayoralty) of Paris, which was first occupied by Bailly, and soon became, under the title of commune, a political power capable of effectively counterbalancing the central authority.[9]
Paris had at that time once more outgrown its limits. The quarter on the left side of the river had more than doubled its extent by the accession of the great monasteries, the faubourgs of St Germain and St Marceau, the Jardin des Plantes, and the whole of Mont Ste Geneviève. The line of the new enceinte is still marked by a circuit of boulevards passing from the Champs de Mars at Pont d’Austerlitz by Place de l’Enfer and Place d’Italie. Similar enlargements, also marked out by a series of boulevards, incorporated with the town on the right side of the faubourgs of St Antoine and Poissonnière and the quarters of La Chaussée d’Antin and Chaillot. In 1784 was begun, instead of a line of fortifications, a simple customs-wall, with sixty propylaea or pavilions in a heavy but characteristic style, of which the finest are adorned with columns or pilasters like those of Paestum. In front of the Place du Trône (now Place de la Nation), which formed as it were a façade for Paris on the east side, there were erected two lofty rostral columns bearing the statues of Philip Augustus and St Louis. Towards the west, the city front was the Place Louis XV. (Place de la Concorde), preceded by the magnificent avenue of the Champs Élysées. Between the barriers of La Villette and Pantin, where the highways for Flanders and Germany terminated, was built a monumental rotunda flanked on the ground floor by four peristyles arranged as a Greek cross, and in the second storey lighted by low arcades supported by columns of the Paestum type. None of these works were completed till the time of the empire. It was also in the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV., and under the first republic, that the quarter of La Chaussée d’Antin was built.
The history of Paris during the Revolutionary period is the history rather of France, and to a certain extent of the whole world (see France: History; French Revolution; and the articles on the Jacobins and other clubs). During the Consulate hardly anything of note took place at Paris except the explosion of the infernal machine directed against Bonaparte on the 24th of December 1800.
The coronation of Napoleon by Pope Pius VII. was celebrated in Notre Dame on the 2nd of December 1804. Eight years later, during the Russian campaign, the conspiracy of General Malet, happily suppressed, was on the point of letting loose on all France a dreadful civil war. The empire, however, was then on the wane, and Paris was witness of its fall when, after a battle on the heights of Montmartre and at the barrière de Clichy, the city was obliged to surrender to the allies on the 30th of March 1814.
For the next two months the city was in the occupation of the allies and witnessed a hitherto unique assembly of sovereigns and statesmen. Their deliberations issued on the 30th of May 1814 in the first treaty of Paris (see Paris, Treaties of, below). So far as the city itself was concerned, the only permanent loss that it suffered through the occupation was that of the art treasures with which Napoleon had enriched it at the expense of other capitals; among these were many paintings and pieces of statuary from the Louvre, and the famous bronze horses from Venice, which were taken down from the triumphal arch of the Carrousel and restored to the façade of St Mark’s. The expressed determination of Blücher and his Prussians to blow up the Pont de Jéna, built to commemorate Napoleon’s crushing victory of 1806, was frustrated by the vigorous intervention of Wellington and of the emperor Alexander I.
Paris under the Restoration witnessed the revival of religious ceremonials to which it had long been unaccustomed, notably the great Corpus Christi procession, in which the king himself carried a candle. Then came Napoleon’s return from Elba (March 1815) and the interlude of the Hundred Days. After Waterloo, though there was fighting round Paris, there was no effort to defend the city against the allied armies; for the Parisians had grown thoroughly weary of Napoleon, and Louis XVIII., though he returned “in the baggage train of the enemy,” was received by the populace with rapturous acclamation (see Louis XVIII.). The second treaty of Paris was signed on the 20th of November of the same year (see below). It left France in the occupation of 150,000 foreign troops, and the crown and government under the tutelage of a committee of representatives of the foreign great powers in Paris.
Paris now became the centre of the royalist reaction, and of a political proscription which reflected, though without its popular excesses, the White Terror of the South. The most conspicuous event of this time was the tragedy of the trial and execution of Marshal Ney (q.v.). For the rest, the only event of note that occurred in Paris under Louis XVIII. was the assassination of the duke of Berry by Louvel on the 13th of February 1820. Ten years later the revolution of 1830,[10] splendidly commemorated by the Column of July in Place de la Bastille, put Charles X. to flight and inaugurated the reign of Louis Philippe, a troublous period which was closed by the revolution of 1848 and a new republic. It was this reign, however, that surrounded Paris with bastioned fortifications with ditches and detached forts, the outcome of the warlike fever aroused by the exclusion of France from the treaty of London of 1840 (see Mehemet Ali). The republic of 1848 brought no greater quiet to the city than did the reign of Louis Philippe. The most terrible insurrection was that of the 23rd-26th of June 1848, distinguished by the devotion and heroic death of the Archbishop Affre. It was quelled by General Cavaignac, who then for some months held the executive power. Prince Louis Napoleon next became president of the republic, and after dissolving the chamber of deputies on the 2nd of December 1851, caused himself to be proclaimed emperor just a year later.
The second empire completed that material transformation of Paris which had already been begun at the fall of the ancient monarchy. First came numerous cases of destruction and demolition caused by the suppression of the old monasteries and of many parish churches. A number of medieval buildings, civil or military, were cleared away for the sake of regularity of plan and improvements in the public streets, or to satisfy the taste of the owners, who thought more of their comfort or profit than of the historic interest of their old mansions or houses.
It was under the first empire that the new series of improvements were inaugurated which have made Paris a modern city. Napoleon began the Rue de Rivoli, built along this street the wing intended to connect the Tuileries with the Louvre, erected in front of the court of the Tuileries the triumphal arch of the Carrousel, in imitation of that of Septimius Severus at Rome. In the middle of the Place Vendôme was reared, on the model of Trajan’s column, the column of the Grand Army, surmounted by the statue of the emperor. To immortalize this same Grand Army he ordered from the architect Pierre Vignon a Temple of Victory, which without changing the form of its Corinthian peristyle has become the church of the Madeleine; the entrance to the avenue of the Champs Élysées was spanned by the vast triumphal arch De l’Étoile (of the star), which owes its celebrity not only to its colossal dimensions and its magnificent situation, but also to one of the four subjects sculptured upon its faces—the Chant du départ or Marseillaise, one of the masterpieces of Rude and of modern sculpture. Another masterpiece was executed by David of Angers—the pediment of the Panthéon, not less famous than Soufflot’s dome. The museum of the Louvre, founded by decree of the Convention on the 27th of July 1793, was organized and considerably enlarged; that of the Luxembourg was created in 1805, but was not appropriated exclusively to modern artists till under the Restoration. The Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, due to the Convention, received also considerable additions in the old priory or abbey of St Martin des Champs, where the council of the Five Hundred had installed it in 1798.
Under the Restoration and under the government of July many new buildings were erected; but, with the exception of the Bourse, constructed by the architects Brongniart and Labarre, and the colonnade of the Chamber of Deputies, these are of interest not so much for their size as for the new artistic tendencies affected in their architecture. People had grown weary of the eternal Graeco-Roman compilations rendered fashionable by the Renaissance, and reduced under the empire to mere imitations, in producing which all inspiration was repressed. The necessity of being rational in architecture, and of taking full account of practical wants, was recognized; and more suggestive and plastic models were sought in the past. These were to be found, it was believed, in Greece; and in consequence the government under Louis Philippe saw itself obliged to found the French school at Athens, in order to allow young artists to study their favourite types on the spot. In the case of churches it was deemed judicious to revive the Christian basilicas of the first centuries, as at Notre Dame de Lorette and St Vincent de Paul; and a little later to bring in again the styles of the middle ages, as in the ogival church of St Clotilde.
Old buildings were also the object of labours more or less important. The Place de la Concorde was altered in various ways, and adorned with eight statues of towns and with two fountains; on the 25th of October 1836 the Egyptian obelisk, brought at great expense from Luxor, was erected in the centre. The general restoration of the cathedral of Notre Dame was voted by the Chamber in 1845, and entrusted to Viollet-le-Duc; and the palace of the Luxembourg and the Hôtel de Ville were considerably enlarged at the same time, in the style of the existing edifices.
But the great transformer of Paris in modern times was Napoleon III. To him or to his reign we owe the Grand Opééra, the masterpiece of the architect Garnier; the new Hôtel-Dieu; the finishing of the galleries which complete the Louvre and connect it with the Tuileries; the extension of the Palais de Justice and its new front on the old Place Dauphine; the tribunal of commerce; the central markets; several of the finest railway stations; the viaduct at Auteuil; the churches of La Trinité, St Augustin, St Ambroise, St François Xavier, Belleville, Ménilmontant, &c. For the first international Paris exhibition (that of 1855) was constructed the “palace of industry”; the enlargement of the national library was commenced; the museum of French antiquities was created by the savant Du Sommerard, and installed in the old “hôtel” built at the end of the 15th century for the abbots of Cluny.
All this is but the smallest part of the memorials which Napoleon III. left of his presence. Not only was the city traversed in all directions by new thoroughfares, and sumptuous houses raised or restored in every quarter, but the line of the fortifications was made in 1859 the limit of the city. The area was thus doubled, extending to 7450 hectares or 18,410 acres, instead of 3402 hectares or 8407 acres. It was otherwise with the population; to the 1,200,000 inhabitants which Paris possessed in 1858 the incorporation of the suburban zone only added 600,000.
Paris had to pay dear for its growth and prosperity under the second empire. This government, which, by straightening and widening the streets, thought it had effectually guarded against the attempts of its internal enemies, had not sufficiently defended itself from external attack, and at the first reverses of 1870 Paris found itself prepared to overthrow the empire, but by no means able to hold out against the approaching Prussians.
The two sieges of Paris in 1870-71 are among the most dramatic episodes of its history. The first siege began on the 19th of September 1870, with the occupation by the Germans of the heights on the left side of the river and the capture of the unfinished redoubt of Châtillon. Two days later the investment was complete. General Trochu, head of the French Government and governor of the city, had under his command 400,000 men—a force which ought to have been able to hold out against the 240,000 Germans by whom it was besieged, had it not been composed for the most part of hurried levies of raw soldiers with inexperienced officers, and of national guards who, never having been subjected to strict military discipline, were a source of weakness rather than of strength. The guards, it is true, displayed a certain warlike spirit, but it was for the sole purpose of exciting disorder. Open revolt broke out on the 31st of October; it was suppressed, but increased the demoralization of the besieged and the demands of the Prussians. The partial successes which the French obtained in engagements on both sides of the river were rendered useless by the Germans recapturing all the best positions; the severity of winter told heavily on the garrison, and the armies in the provinces which were to have co-operated with it were held in check by the Germans in the west and south. In obedience to public opinion a great sortie was undertaken; this, in fact, was the only alternative to a surrender; for, the empire having organized everything in expectation of victory and not of disaster, Paris, insufficiently provisioned for the increase of population caused by the influx of refugees, was already suffering the horrors of famine. Accidental circumstances combined with the indecision of the leaders to render the enterprise a failure. Despatches sent by balloon to the army of the Loire instructing it to make a diversion reached their destination too late; the bridge of Champigny over the Marne could not be constructed in time; the most advantageous positions remained in the hands of the Germans; and on the 2nd and 3rd of December the French abandoned the positions they had seized on the 29th and 30th of November. Another sortie made towards the north on the 21st of December was repulsed, and the besieged lost the Avron plateau, the key to the positions which they still held on that side. The bombardment began on the 17th of December, and great damage was done to the forts on the left of the Seine, especially those of Vanves and Issy, directly commanded by the Châtillon battery. A third and last sortie (which proved fatal to Regnault the painter) was attempted in January 1871, but resulted in hopeless retreat. An armistice was signed on the 27th of January, the capitulation on the 28th. The revictualling of the city was not accomplished without much difficulty, in spite of the generous rivalry of foreign nations (London alone sending provisions to the value of £80,000).
On the 1st of March the Germans entered Paris. This event, which marked the close of the siege, was at the same time the first preparation for the “commune;” for the national guard, taking advantage of the general confusion and the powerlessness of the regular army, carried a number of cannon to the heights of Montmartre and Belleville under pretext of saving them. President Thiers, appreciating the danger, attempted on the 18th of March to remove the ordnance; his action was the signal of an insurrection which, successful from the first, initiated a series of terrible outrages by the murder of the two generals, Lecomte and Thomas. The government, afraid of the defection of the troops, who were demoralized by failure and suffering, had evacuated the forts on the left side of the river and concentrated the army at Versailles (the forts on the right side were still to be held for some time by the Germans). Mont Valérien happily remained in the hands of the government and became the pivot of the attack during the second siege. All the sorties made by the insurgents in the direction of Versailles (where the National Assembly was in session from the 20th of March) proved unsuccessful, and cost them two of their improvised leaders—Generals Flourens and Duval. The incapacity and mutual hatred of their chiefs rendered all organization and durable resistance impossible. On Sunday the 21st of May the government forces, commanded by Marshal MacMahon, having already captured the forts on the right side of the river, made their way within the walls; but they had still to fight hard from barricade to barricade before they were masters of the city; Belleville, the special Red Republican quarter, was not assaulted and taken till Friday. Meanwhile the communists were committing the most horrible excesses: the archbishop of Paris (Georges Darboy, q.v.), President Bonjean, priests, magistrates, journalists and private individuals, whom they had seized as hostages, were shot in batches in the prisons; and a scheme of destruction was ruthlessly carried into effect by men and women with cases of petroleum (pétroleurs and pétroleuses). The Hôtel de Ville, the Palais de Justice, the Tuileries, the Ministry of Finance, the palace of the Legion of Honour, that of the Council of State, part of the Rue de Rivoli, &c., were ravaged by the flames; barrels of gunpowder were placed in Notre Dame and the Panthéon, ready to blow up the buildings; and the whole city would have been involved in ruin if the national troops had not gained a last and crowning victory in the neighbourhood of La Roquette and Père-la-Chaise on the 28th of May. Besides the large number of insurgents who, taken in arms, were pitilessly shot, others were afterwards condemned to death, to penal servitude, to transportation; and the survivors only obtained their liberty by the decree of 1879.
From this double trial Paris emerged diminished and almost robbed of its dignity as capital; for the parliamentary assemblies and the government went to sit at Versailles. For a little it was thought that the city would not recover from the blow which had fallen on it. All came back, however confidence, prosperity, and, along with that, increasing growth of population and the execution of great public works. The Hôtel de Ville was rebuilt, the school of medicine adorned with an imposing façade, a vast school of pharmacy established in the old gardens of the Luxembourg, and boulevards completed. The exhibition of 1878 was more marvellous than those of 1855 and 1867, and left a lasting memorial—the palace of the Trocadéro. And the chambers in 1879 considered quiet sufficiently restored to take possession of their customary quarters in the Palais Bourbon and the Luxembourg. (A. S.-P.; W. A. P.)
The Universal Exhibition of 1878, destined to show Europe that France had recovered her material prosperity and moral power, attracted a large concourse. The number of admissions was about 13,000,000. A grand fête, full of gaiety and enthusiasm, was held on the 30th of June. This was the first public rejoicing since the war. The terrible winter of 1879–1880 was the severest of the century; the Seine, entirely frozen, resembled a sea of ice. The 14th of July, the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, was adopted as the French national holiday and celebrated for the first time in 1880. A grand military review was held in the Bois de Boulogne, at which President Grévy distributed flags to all the regiments of the army. On the 17th of March 1881 a national loan of a thousand million francs was issued for the purpose of executing important public works. This loan was covered fifteen times, Paris alone subscribing for ten thousand millions. At the time of the legislative elections, on the 21st of August and the 4th of September 1881, several tumults occurred in the Belleville district, Gambetta, who was a candidate in the two wards of that district vainly tried to address the electors. The great orator died in the following year, on the 31st of December, from the effects of an accident, and his funeral, celebrated in Paris at the expense of the State, was attended by an immense gathering. A slight Legitimist agitation followed Gambetta’s death. An unfortunate event occurred on the 29th of September 1883, the day when the king of Spain, Alphonso XII., returned from his visit to Berlin, where he had reviewed the 15th regiment of Prussian Uhlans, of which he was the honorary colonel. The cries of “Down with the Uhlan!” with which he was greeted by the Paris crowd, gave rise to serious diplomatic incidents. On the 26th of May 1885 the following decree was rendered: “The Panthéon is restored to its primitive and legal destination. The remains of the great men who have merited national recognition will be disposed therein.” But it was only on the 4th of August 1899 that the ashes of Lazare Carnot, Hoche, Marceau, Latour d’Auvergne and Baudin were solemnly transported to the Pantheon. Victor Hugo’s funeral was celebrated on the 1st of June 1885, and by an urgency vote they were made national obsequies. It was decided that the corpse should be exposed one day and one night under the Arc de Triomphe, veiled with an immense crape. A few days before, upon the occasion of the anniversary of the fall of the Commune, a tumultuous political manifestation had been made in front of the tomb of the Communists buried in Père Lachaise cemetery.
In 1886 the Monarchists renewed their political demonstrations; the most important one was the reception given by the Count of Paris at the Galliera mansion on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter with the King of Portugal. The Count of Paris had invited to this reception all the foreign ambassadors, and some disturbance having taken place, the Chamber of Deputies, on the 11th of June 1886, voted a law interdicting sojourn upon French territory to the Orleanist and Bonapartist pretenders to the throne of France, and also to their direct heirs. At that epoch Paris was in a state of agitation and discontent, and various catastrophes occurred. First of all came the disastrous bankruptcy of a large financial concern called the Union Générale; then the scandal concerning the traffic in decorations, in which M. Wilson, son-in-law of M. Jules Grévy, was compromised, and which eventually led to the resignation of the President; finally the deplorable Panama affair profoundly enervated the Parisians, and made them feel the necessity of shouting for a military master, some adventurer who would promise them a revenge. All this led to Boulangism. It was by wild acclamations and frantic shouts that General Boulanger was greeted, first at the review of the army on the 14th of July, then two days later at the opening of the Military Club, afterwards at the Winter Circus, where the Patriots’ League held a mass meeting under the presidency of Paul Déroulède, and finally, on the 8th of July, at an immense demonstration at the Lyons railway station, when “le brav’ Général” left Paris to take command of the 13th army corps at Clermont Ferrand. Popular refrains were sung in the streets in the midst of immense excitement on the 27th of January 1889 at the time of the election of General Boulanger as deputy for the Seine department. A majority of 80,000 votes had invested him with an immense moral authority, and he appeared as though elected as the candidate of the entire country; but he lacked the necessary audacity to complete his triumph, and the Government having decided to prosecute him for conspiracy against the security of the state, before the Senate acting as a High Court of Justice, he fled with his accomplices, Rochefort and Dillon. All three were condemned by default, on the 14th of August, to imprisonment in a fortified enclosure.
Other events had also troubled this astonishing interlude of Boulangism. On the 23rd of February 1887 a terrible fire destroyed the Opéra Comique during a performance, and a great many of the audience perished in the flames. The first performance of Lohengrin, which took place at the Eden Theatre on the 1st of May 1887, was also the cause of street rioting. In 1888 there were several strikes. That of the day labourers, which lasted more than a month, occasioned violent scenes, owing to the sudden death of Émile Eudes, a Communist, while he was speaking in favour of the strike at a public meeting. On the 2nd of December there were manifestations in memory of Baudin, a representative of the people, killed upon the barricades in 1851 while fighting in the defence of the Republic. But a calm finally came, and then the Parisians thought only of celebrating the centenary of the Revolution of 1789 by a universal exhibition. This exhibition contained a profusion of marvels such as had never before been seen, and indicated what enormous industrial progress had been accomplished. Sadi Carnot, who had succeeded M. Jules Grévy as President of the Republic on the 3rd of December 1887, officially opened the exhibition on the 6th of May 1889. Numerous fêtes were held in the grounds while the exhibition lasted. The Eiffel Tower and the illuminated fountains enraptured the crowd of visitors, while the Rue du Caire, with its Egyptian donkey-drivers, obtained a prodigious success. Most of the nations were represented at this exhibition. Germany alone confined her co-operation to the display of some paintings. The Shah of Persia, in honour of whom splendid fêtes were organized, and the King of Greece, the Prince of Wales, the Lord Mayor of London, several Russian grand dukes, Annamite, Tunisian, Moorish, Egyptian and African princes successively visited the Exhibition. There were 30,000,000 visitors. On the 18th of August a banquet was given in the Palais de l’Industrie by the Paris Municipal Council to all the mayors in France, and 15,000 of these officials were present.
In 1890 the duke of Orleans, having attained his majority, came to Paris to draw for military service with the youngest conscripts of his class. He was arrested, and placed, first in the Conciergerie, and later in the prison at Clairvaux, but was released after a few months’ incarceration. The following years were remarkable for more strikes and several demonstrations by the students, which led in 1893 to conflicts with the police, in one of which a student was killed. On the 17th of October an enthusiastic welcome was extended to Admiral Avellan and the Russian sailors upon their arrival in Paris. It was about this time that dynamite began to be used by the Anarchists. After Ravachol, who commenced the sinister exploits of the “propaganda by acts,” it was Vaillant who threw a bomb into the “Temple of the Laws” on the 9th of December 1893, and wounded forty-six deputies. Then there was a succession of these attacks during the two following months, for Ravachol and Vaillant had found emulators. Henry scattered fright and death among the peaceable customers of a brasserie, while bombs were thrown into the doorways and staircases of houses inhabited by wealthy people. Upon the steps of the Madeleine Church, Parvels, who was already the author of two dynamite plots, was struck down by the destructive machine that he was about to throw into the body of the church. Laurent Tailhade himself, who had celebrated with his pen the beauty of Vaillant’s gesture, was subsequently wounded by dynamite thrown into the Café Foy, where he was lunching.
The visit of the emperor and empress of Russia, on the 5th, 6th and 7th of October 1896, was celebrated by incomparable fêtes. The Rue de la Paix was decorated with ropes and sails, stretched across the street like the rigging of a vast vessel, in honour of the Russian sailors. Nothing could be seen anywhere except flags, cockades and badges formed of the colours of the two friendly nations. In the evening there were open-air balls, with farandoles and orchestras at all the street corners. Popular enthusiasm was again manifested on the 31st of August, when President Faure returned from his visit to the Russian court. On the 4th of May 1897 the terrible conflagration at the Charity Bazaar in the Rue Jean Goujon threw into mourning one hundred and forty families of the nobility or the aristocracy of Paris, and spread sorrow among the class always considerate in its benevolence. Then all minds were again troubled and disturbances occurred in the streets for more than two years over the Dreyfus case, dividing the French people into two camps.
President Faure died suddenly on the 18th of February 1899. The very day of his funeral, Paul Déroulède and Marcel Habert tried to make a coup d’état by urging General Roget to lead his troops, which had formed part of the guard of honour at the obsequies, against the Élysée. Immediately arrested and put on trial, Déroulède and Habert were acquitted by a timorous jury.
M. Émile Loubet, President of the Senate, was chosen successor to M. Félix Faure. Upon his return to Paris from the Versailles Congress, where he had been elected President of the French Republic, he was greeted by hisses and cries of “Panama!” cries in no wise justifiable. Some time afterwards, Jules Guérin, by a desperate resistance against a summons of the police to give himself up, made the public believe for two months in the existence of an impregnable fortress in the Rue Chabrol, in the very centre of Paris. On the 4th of June there was a great scandal at the Auteuil Races, which President Loubet had been, according to custom, invited to attend. He was insulted and struck by Baron de Christiani, who was encouraged by the young royalists of the “Œillets Blancs” Association. A week later, the extraordinary and excessive police measures taken to prevent a disturbance at the Grand Prix occasioned the downfall of the Dupuy ministry. M. Waldeck-Rousseau then formed a cabinet, himself becoming president of the council. The new premier immediately took energetic measures against the enemies of the Republic. Compromising documents found in various domiciliary searches made among the Monarchists and Nationalists formed the basis of prosecutions before the High Court of Justice. The trial resulted in the condemnation of Jules Guérin to a term of imprisonment, and the banishment of Paul Déroulède, Marcel Habert, André Buffet and the Marquis de Lur Saluces, thereby ridding France of all these promoters of disorder, and opening a new era of peace, which lasted throughout the Universal Exhibition of 1900.
This exhibition covered an enormous space, including the slope of the Trocadéro, the Champ de Mars, the Esplanade of the Invalides and both sides of the Seine bordered by the Rue de Paris and the Rue des Nations. Seen from the new Alexandre III. bridge, the spectacle was as fairy-like as a stage setting. Close beside, at the left, were the palaces of the different nations, each one showing its characteristic architecture, and all being of an astonishing diversity. To the right were the pavilion of the city of Paris and the enormous greenhouses, and in the distance Old Paris, so picturesquely constructed by Robida. In short, exotic edifices and scintillating cupolas arose with unparalleled profusion, creating in the heart of Paris a veritable city of dreams and illusion. The most distant countries sent their art treasures or the marvels of their industry. The number of visitors was 51,000,000, and the personages of mark included the Shah of Persia, the King of Sweden, the King of the Belgians and the King of Greece, all of whom were successively the guests of France. On the 22nd of September 22,000 mayors accepted the invitation to the banquet offered in their honour by President Loubet, and thus solemnly affirmed their Republican faith. This admirably organized banquet was spread in the Tuileries Gardens. The exhibition of 1900, a brilliant epilogue of the closing century, was a grand manifestation of universal concord, of the union of peoples by art, science, industry, all branches of human genius. (De B.)
The bibliography of the history of Paris is immense, and it must suffice here, so far as authorities on the medieval period are concerned, to refer to the long list of works, &c., given by Ulysse Chevalier in his Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen âge, topo-bibliographi (Montbéliard, 1903), pp. 2267–2290. See also Lacombe, Bibliographie parisienne, tableaux de mœurs, 1600–1880 (Paris, 1886), and Pessard, Nouveau dict. hist. de Paris (1904). Of general works may be mentioned specially J. C. Dulaure, Hist. physique, civile et morale de Paris (1821; new ed. continued by Leynadier and Roquette, 1874; Paul Robiquet, Hist. municipale de Paris, up to Henry IV. (1880–1904); J. Lebeuf, Hist. de la. ville et de tout le diocèse de Paris (Paris, 1754–1758; new ed. revised and enlarged, by H. Cocheris, 1863–1867); and the Hist. générale de Paris, published under the authority of the municipality, of which vol. xxxix. was issued in 1906. Important special works on later periods are W. A. Schmidt, Pariser Zustände während der Revolutionszeit, 1780–1800 (Jena, 1874–1876; French trans., Paris pendant la revolution, by P. Viollet, 1880–1894), and Tableaux de la révolution française (Leipzig, 1867–1870); F. Aulard, Collection de documents relatifs à l’hist. de Paris pendant la révolution (1899–1903); Lanzac de Laborie, Paris sous Napoléon (1905); Simond, Paris de 1800 à 1900 (1902); Cilleuls, Hist. de l’administration parisienne au xixᵐᵉ siècle (1900).
- ↑ The observatories of the Tour St Jacques and of Montsouris belong to the municipality of Paris; that of St Maur depends on the Central Bureau of Meteorology, a national institution.
- ↑ The plateau of Mont Avron on the east side, which was provisionally fortified in 1870, is not now defended.
- ↑ The word boulevard means “bulwark” or fortification and thus has direct reference to the old ramparts. But since the middle of the 19th century the title has been applied to new thoroughfares not traced on the site of an old enceinte.
- ↑ This canal (3 m. long) leaving the Seine below Austerlitz bridge, passes by a tunnel under the Place de la Bastille and Boulevard Richard Lenoir, and rises by sluices to the La Villette basin, from which the St Denis canal (4 m. long) descends to the Seine at St Denis. In this way boats going up or down the river can avoid passing through Paris. The canal de l’Ourcq, which supplies the two canals mentioned, contributes to the water-supply of Paris as well as to its transport facilities.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 These gardens are the property of the state, the other areas mentioned being the property of the town.
- ↑ The Collège Chaptal has a wider scope than the higher primary schools; it has in view general culture rather than commercial aptitude, and also prepares students for the great scientific schools (école des mines, école polytechnique, &c.).
- ↑ After the suppression of the Templars in 1312 the Temple was assigned to the Knights of St John. It was used as a state prison in the 14th century, and as barracks in the 16th. The church and the greater part of the other buildings survived in the 17th century. At the Revolution the keep (1265 or 1270) alone survived of the Templars’ buildings. It was here that Louis XVI. and the royal family were imprisoned. It became a place of pilgrimage for the Royalists, and was, in consequence, pulled down under the Empire in 1811. Its site is occupied by the Place du Temple.
- ↑ Arthur, earl of Richmond, afterwards Arthur III. (q.v.), duke of Brittany.
- ↑ Owing to the armed and organized revolutionary elements in the assemblies of the Sections, which enabled the revolutionary commune to direct and control popular émeutes.
- ↑ Notable in the history of the city for the discovery by the populace of the effectiveness of barricades against regular troops. These had been last used in the Fronde.