page_title: Paris during the Second Empire
section_title: Gas lamps and the City of Light
hierarchical_section_title: Paris during the Second Empire / Gas lamps and the City of Light
caption_attribution_description: English: Lamp post on curb, against backdrop of the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France.
context_page_description: During the Second French Empire, the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, Paris was the largest city in continental Europe and a leading center of finance, commerce, fashion, and the arts. The population of the city grew dramatically, from about one million to two million persons, partly because the city was greatly enlarged, to its present boundaries, through the annexation of eleven surrounding communes and the subsequent creation of eight new arrondissements.
  In 1853, Napoleon III and his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, began a massive public works project, constructing new boulevards and parks, theaters, markets and monuments, a project that Napoleon III supported for seventeen years until his downfall in 1870, and which was continued afterward under the Third Republic. The street plan and architectural style of Napoleon III and Haussmann are still largely preserved and manifestly evident in the center of Paris.
context_section_description: The gas lights that illuminated Paris at night during the Second Empire were often admired by foreign visitors and helped give the city its nickname Ville-Lumiére, the City of Light.  At the beginning of the Empire, there were 8,000 gas lights in the city; by 1870, there were 56,573 used exclusively to light the city streets.
  The gas was produced by ten enormous factories—located around the edge of the city, near the circle of fortifications—and was distributed in pipes installed under the new boulevards and streets. Haussmann placed street lamps every twenty meters on the boulevards. Shortly after nightfall, a small army of 750 allumeurs in uniform, carrying long poles with small lamps at the end, went out into the streets, turned on a pipe of gas inside each lamppost, and lit the lamp. The entire city was illuminated within forty minutes. The amount of light was greatly enhanced by the white stone walls of the new Haussmann apartment buildings, which reflected the brilliant gaslight. Certain buildings and monuments were also illuminated: the Arc de Triomphe was crowned with a ring of gaslights, and they outlined the Hôtel de Ville. The Champs-Elysees was lined with ribbons of white light. The major theaters, cafés, and department stores were also brightly lit with gaslight, as were some rooms in apartments in the new Haussmann buildings. The concert gardens, in which balls were held in summer, had gas lighting, as well as small gas lamps in the gardens, where gentlemen could light their cigars and cigarettes.
caption: Gas lamp on the Place de l'Étoile (now the Place Charles de Gaulle)
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