July 2014: Storming the Bastille (July 14, 1789) | Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective Current Events in Historical Perspective By Mircea Platon More than any other event of the eighteenth century, the French Revolution, which began in 1789, changed the face of modern politics across Europe and the world. It overturned the longstanding French system of monarchical government and introduced the ideas of liberty, equality, fraternity, and human and civil rights to modern political practice. It also helped to usher in modern nationalism and nation-states. And it became a model of revolutionary political change that was followed throughout the world from Europe, to Haiti , Latin America , Russia , and East Asia . And it all began one July day when the people of Paris captured a fourteenth-century gothic prison known as the Bastille. Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet, Mémoires sur la Bastille (1783). Frontispice. The palace of the Bastille, that old symbol of despotism, is taken by the statue of the benevolent king Louis XVI in this engraving.

Louis XVI was indeed planning to erase the gothic—and thus un-enlightened—and expensive prison, but the Revolution moved faster than him. Linguet's Mémoires were a huge European best-seller and popularized the black legend of the Bastille. In the summer of 1789, Paris was at a boil. The people had been suffering food shortages and the weight of taxes used to pay King Louis XVI’s vast debts. And they found themselves in the midst of unprecedented political turmoil caused by the opening of the Estates General, France’s Parliament, for the first time in more than one hundred years. Many Parisians were also angered by the dismissal of the popular minister Jacques Necker on 11 July. But what really stirred them was the fact that, since the beginning of June 1789, Louis XVI had concentrated troops around Paris. The sense of menace that the militarization of the city caused provoked a march to the Hôtel des Invalides, where they looted approximately 3,000 firearms and five canons. The weapons, however, required gunpowder, which was stored in the Bastille.

In this painting , the King (the lion) is constitutionally tamed, while the First (the Clergy) and the Second (the Nobles) Estates are dancing to the tune of the Third Estate, that is of the people. After arriving at the prison and negotiating with its governor, marchers burst into an outer courtyard and a pitch battle erupted. By the time it was over, the people of Paris had freed the prisoners held in the Bastille and taken the governor captive (the governor and three of his officers would soon be killed and then beheaded by an infuriated crowd, their heads paraded through the streets atop pikes). The cost was steep: nearly one hundred citizens and eight prison guards were killed. All of this happened on July 14, which has been known in France and all over the world as “Bastille Day” ever since. Hearing that the Bastille had fallen, Louis XVI asked the duke de La Rochefoucauld: “So, is there a rebellion?” To which the duke retorted: “No, Sire, a revolution!” Like many other iconic revolutionary acts, the storming of the Bastille was not intended as such.

Yet, it was a pivotal moment in the unfolding of the French Revolution—the spark that forced the King to begin concessions and emboldened the people’s movement to overthrow him (and later to behead both him and his wife in the hope of burying monarchy forever). Throughout the nineteenth century, the fall of the Bastille was chronicled by historians, depicted by artists and celebrated by common people. In 1880, the French chose to make the Storming of the Bastille their national holiday. Through all the upheavals of France’s century of revolutions (1789-1871), the events of July 14 retained their power as the most powerful symbol of the people bringing down a despotic government and putting an end to arbitrary rule. Poster by Gustave Donjean for the historic drama in five acts, Le Pacte de famine ou la Prise de la Bastille, le 14 juillet 1789, by Paul Foucher & Elie Berthet, played at the Théatre des Nations, place du Chatelet in 1870. .

Today, in times of deterritorialized terror, outsourced prisons, bitcoins, and subcontracted state and military arbitrariness, the Storming of the Bastille might look like a quaint scene from an old-fashioned opera. Yet, the world in recent years has had its own share of Bastilles, from Tahrir Square in Cairo to Independence Square in Kyiv (not to mention the recent commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Movement ). And, as we celebrate the 225th anniversary, the taking of the Bastille reminds us that on the long, bumpy road toward representative democracy—that is, on the road toward the rule with the consent and for the benefit of the people—it is sometimes easier to strike down the visible signs of authoritarian power than to deal with the complicated, often shadowy sources of that power. And, after it took the French the better part of a century to embed the democratic ideals of 1789, the Bastille prompts us to remember just how hard it is for the voices of the people to be transformed into the enduring instructions of democratic governance and the rule of law.

The storming of the Bastille continued to inspire the artists even in the 19th century as seen in the above: Prise de la Bastille by Jean-Pierre Houël (1874) . The storming of the Bastille also reminds us that modern citizens were not only born out of acts of valor or cruelty only, but also out of the act of remembering and out of the strong desire for justice. The fall of the Bastille was one of the moments in the eruption of the modern popular historical consciousness and the power of history and historical consciousness to the proper functioning of a democratic society. 1789, as well as a prison, the Bastille served as an archive holding the documents of the Parlement de Paris, of the King’s household, and of the Parisian police. Pillaged, scattered and burned during and after the fall of the fortress, large parts of the archive were recovered by Beaumarchais and by the Russian diplomat and bibliophile Pierre Dubrowsky .

In 1880, the French government commissioned from Alfred-Philippe Roll (1846-1919) a painting that would preserve the memory of the first official celebration of 14 July as a national holiday. Finished in 1882, Roll's work depicted the inauguration of the monument dedicated to the French Republic at Le Petit Palais, on 14 July 1880. Realizing the importance of the Bastille archives, the Commune de Paris appealed to the citizens to return any documents they might have in their possession in order to help document the future trial of royal despotism. The citizens of Paris answered promptly and 600,000 pieces were returned. Today, together with a copy of the documents saved by Dubrowsky, they constitute the Archives de la Bastille found at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris seized not only a prison, but also control over their own historical memory, too.

It is this sudden blooming of subjects into citizens, willing and able not only to change history, but also to contribute to its writing, which set the precedent for all the revolutions of the modern age. It is a privilege which we should strive not to lose. Fireworks in Paris on Bastille Day, 2011 Storming of the Bastille Storming of the Bastille Share Intro On 14 July 1789, a state prison on the east side of Paris, known as the Bastille, was attacked by an angry and aggressive mob. The prison had become a symbol of the monarchy’s dictatorial rule, and the event became one of the defining moments in the Revolution that followed. This article reporting the events of 14 July was published in an English newspaper called The World, a few days after the event took place. A medieval fortress, the Bastille’s eight 30-metre-high towers, dominated the Parisian skyline. When the prison was attacked it actually held only seven prisoners, but the mob had not gathered for them: it had come to demand the huge ammunition stores held within the prison walls.

When the prison governor refused to comply, the mob charged and, after a violent battle, eventually took hold of the building. The governor was seized and killed, his head carried round the streets on a spike. The storming of the Bastille symbolically marked the beginning of the French Revolution, in which the monarchy was overthrown and a republic set up based on the ideas of ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’ (the French for liberty, equality and brotherhood). In France, the ‘storming of the Bastille’ is still celebrated each year by a national holiday. French revolutionaries storm Bastille - Jul 14, 1789 - HISTORY.com French revolutionaries storm Bastille Publisher A+E Networks Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution , a decade of political turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and tens of thousands of people, including the king and his wife Marie Antoinette, were executed.

The Bastille was originally constructed in 1370 as a bastide, or “fortification,” to protect the walled city of Paris from English attack. It was later made into an independent stronghold, and its name–bastide–was corrupted to Bastille. The Bastille was first used as a state prison in the 17th century, and its cells were reserved for upper-class felons, political troublemakers, and spies. Most prisoners there were imprisoned without a trial under direct orders of the king. Standing 100 feet tall and surrounded by a moat more than 80 feet wide, the Bastille was an imposing structure in the Parisian landscape. By the summer of 1789, France was moving quickly toward revolution. There were severe food shortages in France that year, and popular resentment against the rule of King Louis XVI was turning to fury. In June, the Third Estate, which represented commoners and the lower clergy, declared itself the National Assembly and called for the drafting of a constitution. Initially seeming to yield, Louis legalized the National Assembly but then surrounded Paris with troops and dismissed Jacques Necker, a popular minister of state who had supported reforms.

In response, mobs began rioting in Paris at the instigation of revolutionary leaders. Bernard-René Jordan de Launay, the military governor of the Bastille, feared that his fortress would be a target for the revolutionaries and so requested reinforcements. A company of Swiss mercenary soldiers arrived on July 7 to bolster his garrison of 82 soldiers. The Marquis de Sade, one of the few prisoners in the Bastille at the time, was transferred to an insane asylum after he attempted to incite a crowd outside his window by yelling: “They are massacring the prisoners; you must come and free them.” On July 12, royal authorities transferred 250 barrels of gunpowder to the Bastille from the Paris Arsenal, which was more vulnerable to attack. Launay brought his men into the Bastille and raised its two drawbridges. On July 13, revolutionaries with muskets began firing at soldiers standing guard on the Bastille’s towers and then took cover in the Bastille’s courtyard when Launay’s men fired back. That evening, mobs stormed the Paris Arsenal and another armory and acquired thousands of muskets.

At dawn on July 14, a great crowd armed with muskets, swords, and various makeshift weapons began to gather around the Bastille. Launay received a delegation of revolutionary leaders but refused to surrender the fortress and its munitions as they requested. He later received a second delegation and promised he would not open fire on the crowd. To convince the revolutionaries, he showed them that his cannons were not loaded. Instead of calming the agitated crowd, news of the unloaded cannons emboldened a group of men to climb over the outer wall of the courtyard and lower a drawbridge. Three hundred revolutionaries rushed in, and Launay’s men took up a defensive position. When the mob outside began trying to lower the second drawbridge, Launay ordered his men to open fire. One hundred rioters were killed or wounded. Launay’s men were able to hold the mob back, but more and more Parisians were converging on the Bastille. Around 3 p.m., a company of deserters from the French army arrived. The soldiers, hidden by smoke from fires set by the mob, dragged five cannons into the courtyard and aimed them at the Bastille.

Launay raised a white flag of surrender over the fortress. Launay and his men were taken into custody, the gunpowder and cannons were seized, and the seven prisoners of the Bastille were freed. Upon arriving at the Hotel de Ville, where Launay was to be arrested by a revolutionary council, the governor was pulled away from his escort by a mob and murdered. The capture of the Bastille symbolized the end of the ancien regime and provided the French revolutionary cause with an irresistible momentum. Joined by four-fifths of the French army, the revolutionaries seized control of Paris and then the French countryside, forcing King Louis XVI to accept a constitutional government. In 1792, the monarchy was abolished and Louis and his wife Marie-Antoinette were sent to the guillotine for treason in 1793. By order of the new revolutionary government, the Bastille was torn down. On February 6, 1790, the last stone of the hated prison-fortress was presented to the National Assembly. Today, July 14–Bastille Day–is celebrated as a national holiday in France. Related Videos Place de la Bastille, Paris 6.

Tour de la Liberté 7. Tour de la Bertaudière 8. Tour de la Basinière Aerial view of the Pierre-François Palloy (click to enlarge) The outer stone walls, 15 feet (4.5m) thick at the base, were pierced with narrow slits by which the cells were lighted. In early times, the Bastille had entrances on three sides, but after 1580 only one, with a drawbridge over the moat on the side toward the river, which led to outer courts and a second drawbridge, and wound by a defended passage to an outer entrance opposite the Rue des Tournelles. Close beside the Bastille, to the north, rose the Porte Saint-Antoine  approached over the city fossé (ditch) by its own bridge. At the outer end of this bridge was a triumphal arch, built upon the return of Henri II from Poland in 1573.

Both the gate and arch were restored for the triumphal entry of Louis XIV in 1667, but the gate (where Etienne Marcel was killed on July 31, 1358), was pulled down in 1674. Until the 17th century, the fort was used both as a castle and for the safekeeping of the royal treasure. During the first half of the 17th century, the Cardinal Richelieu (under King Louis XIII) converted the royal fortress into a state prison for the upper class  mainly people who committed high treason or some other kind of offense against either the King or the state (which were considered to be essentially the same). In addition to political prisoners, the Bastille also housed religious prisoners, writers of "seditious" and overtly sexual material, and young rakes held at the request of their families. A lettre de cachet, signed by Louis XIV.

(Musée Carnavalet, Paris) "Monsieur de Jumilhac, mon intention étant que le nommé Hugonet soit conduit en mon château de la Bastille, je vous écris cette lettre pour vous dire que vous ayez à l'y recevoir lorsqu'il y sera amené et à l'y garder et retenir jusqu'à nouvel ordre de ma part. La présente n'étant à d'autre fin, je prie Dieu qu'il vous ait, Monsieur de Jumilhac, en sa sainte garde. Ecrit à Versailles, le treize janvier 1765, Louis" The very often arbitrary warrant of arrest (known as the lettre de cachet , or letter with the royal seal) made the Bastille fortress one of the darkest symbols of royal despotism, although the conditions of imprisonment were generally quite comfortable. The prisoners could welcome visitors, bring their servants, their furniture, clothes, and books, and the daily ration paid by the state provided them a luxury cuisine.

During the reign of Louis XV (1715-1774), the Bastille accommodated more and more ordinary criminals, whose existence there was rather less comfortable. Common prisoners were held within the five- to seven-story towers, each having a room around 4.6 m (15 feet) across and containing various articles of furniture. Thankfully, though, the infamous cachots  the oozing, vermin-infested subterranean cells  were no longer in use by the later half of the 18th century. Voltaire Count Alessandro di Cagliostro As the protectors of the Catholic religion, the king's authorities also imprisoned Protestants and freethinkers, and Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) was arrested twice during his youth. In the last decades after 1750, many inmates were committed by their own families as insane or because of some shameful carnal deviation.

Among the more prominent convicts of the late 1780s were Jean Henri Latude , a notorious and querulous swindler who was recaptured after escaping from prison on three separate occasions; the quack and alchemist Count Cagliostro ; the diplomat and general Charles-François Dumouriez , later to be the hero of the French victory in 1792 at Valmy, but finally in 1793 deserting to the Austrian army; the wallpaper manufacturer Jean-Baptiste Réveillon , who was arrested for his own protection after the riots in the Faubourg St. Antoine in April 1789, when the rumour that he intended to cut his workers' salaries claimed more than 300 lives; and the Marquis de Sade , who however was transferred to the lunatic institution at Charenton on July 4, 1789, after he screeched out from the window of his cell to the neighborhood that "the prisoners were massacred and one should come to help". By this time, the government was already planning to close down and demolish the expensive medieval fortress.

Although it is theorized by some that these utterances by the Marquis de Sade may have inspired the storming of the Bastille ten days later, in fact a far more complex series of events led to the violent insurrection. Interestingly, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro had been imprisoned in the Bastille because of his purported connection with a royal scandal known as the Affair of the (Diamond) Necklace , a charge for which he was ultimately acquitted. However, since the scandal indirectly involved Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, it is considered by historians to have been one of the precipitating factors in the French Revolution. Related Videos The fall of the Bastille The fall of the Bastille An artist’s impression of the siege at the Bastille in July 1789 On July 14th 1789 a crowd of several thousand people laid siege to the Bastille, a royal fortress on the eastern fringe of Paris. The Bastille had served as a royal armoury and a prison, though on July 14th it held few prisoners and was only lightly guarded.

After a stand off that lasted into the afternoon, the crowd gained access to the Bastille, overwhelmed its guards and arrested and murdered its governor. The fortress was claimed by the people and later demolished on the order of the new Paris Commune. The capture of the Bastille was chiefly a symbolic victory; the French Revolution would have days of greater political significance. But the events of July 14th have become one of the defining moments in European history. The storming of the Bastille has shaped our perceptions of the French Revolution, giving us powerful images of an outraged people, who took up arms against a symbol of oppression. The real history of the Bastille is more mundane than its legend. The Bastille began life as a fortress, built in the mid to late 1300s to house a garrison of royal soldiers belonging to Charles V. The fortress and its garrison were installed to protect the eastern flanks of Paris from English raiders during the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453). By the early 1400s the fortress had been expanded to become one of the largest structures in Paris, its crenelated walls standing some 25 metres above the streets below.

It loomed over Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a working class district known for its rowdiness and occasional defiance. A contingent of royal troops was permanently housed there, both to defend the city walls and keep order inside them. Over time the building acquired the name Bastille, a generic French term for any fortress at the gate of a city. A representation of the Bastille, as it might have looked by 1420 By the reign of Louis XI (1461-1483) the Bastille had also become a royal prison. This continued until the French Revolution, though by the late 1700s the Bastille rarely held more than 20 or 30 prisoners. The majority of those detained in the Bastille were not common criminals but political prisoners or men held at the king’s pleasure. They tended to rebellious or troublesome noblemen, aristocrats with large gambling debts, young rogues caught in affairs with the wives of powerful men, religious heretics or critics of the church, seditious journalists and political pornographers. Some inmates were detained there by the courts, others by royal lettres de cachet.

Several notable philosophes and revolutionary figures spent time in the Bastille, including Voltaire (twice), Denis Diderot, Jacques Brissot, the playwright Pierre Beaumarchais, the pornographer Marquis de Sade and military commander Charles Dumouriez. Indeed, a stint in the Bastille was useful for establishing one’s credentials as a writer or an intellectual. The Enlightenment economist André Morellet was detained there for slandering a princess, later writing “Once persecuted I would be better known… those six months in the Bastille would be an excellent recommendation and infallibly make my fortune”. The Paris parlement, which in 1788 took a stand against lettres de cachet On the eve of revolution the Bastille held very few prisoners. The king’s use of lettres de cachet declined through the 1780s – however his use of lettres de cachet against two magistrates of the Paris parlement (August 1787) and the Duke of Orleans (November 1787) triggered a wave of outrage. The parlement itself issued a strongly worded remonstrance, criticsing the king’s use of arbitrary power.

The Paris press seethed about Louis’ actions, while writers like Mirabeau and Sieyès condemned the lettres de cachet as an instrument of absolutist oppression. Sending rogues, fornicators and philanderers to the Bastille was one thing – but detaining magistrates for upholding the law and the general will was an act of tyranny. In the eyes of the people, the Bastille fortress was a physical manifestation of this tyranny, even if its symbolism far outweighed its actual importance. A German image from the 1700s, depicting the Bastille as a “living hell” The attack on the Bastille followed a tumultuous six months. At Versailles, representatives of the Third Estate had defied the king to demand a constitution and form a national assembly. France looked to be transitioning toward constitutional monarchy, however many doubted that the royal government would yield its power so easily. In Paris, the working classes had endured months of bread shortages and high prices. Bread had peaked at 14.5 sous per loaf in February; it eased slightly during the spring but had returned to those levels by mid July. Most Parisians were now spending at least three quarters of their daily income to buy bread.

Louis XVI then made the first of two fateful decisions. Sometime around July 4th the king, probably on the advice of conservative ministers, ordered the assembly of royal troops at several critical locations: at Versailles, at Sèvres, at the Champ de Mars in south-west Paris and at Saint-Denis in the city’s north. Even those not given to suspicion could not miss the significance of this order: it appeared the king was planning to impose martial law to regain his power. If there was any doubt it was removed on July 11th, when Louis dismissed his popular finance minister, Jacques Necker, and replaced him with the arch-conservative Joseph-François Foullon. Necker’s dismissal triggered several days of insurrection in Paris. On July 12th a crowd of several thousand people gathered outside the Palais-Royal, then marched to the Tuileries, demanding Necker’s reinstatement. At the Tuileries they were forced to scatter by a royal cavalry regiment, an incident later depicted as an intentional attack on harmless civilians.

The city’s military garrison, the French Guard, was called out to restore order but its soldiers refused to open fire on the people; in fact many Guardsmen broke ranks and joined the insurrectionists. Royal officials were attacked or chased out of the city and 40 of the government’s 54 customs posts were looted and destroyed. The people of Paris also spent July 12th and 13th gathering arms, in order to defend the city from an anticipated royalist assault. Gun shops, small armouries and private collections were looted. Another artistic account of Parisians storming the Bastille on July 14th 1789 On the morning of July 14th a crowd of several thousand people marched on the Hôtel des Invalides in western Paris. Though used chiefly as a military infirmary, the Invalides had a large store of rifles and several small artillery pieces in its basement. The mob entered the building and looted these weapons, while officers of nearby military regiments refused to intervene. The invaders made off with around 30,000 rifles but found little gunpowder or shot with which to load them.

The solution came from deserting guardsmen, who reported that 250 barrels of gunpowder had recently been stowed at the Bastille. The crowd set off on a two-and-a-half mile march to the fortress, hauling several small cannon. They arrived at around 11 in the morning and formed deputations to speak with the Marquis de Launay, the Bastille’s governor. De Launay was a colonel with a clean but unremarkable military record. He was an authoritarian who was disliked by his prisoners and soldiers alike (one chronicler later described him as a “proud and stupid despot”). In the colonel’s favour, he knew the Bastille well; his father had also been its governor and De Launay himself had been born within its walls. The fortress was lightly guarded by around 120 soldiers, most old or infirm – however the Bastille’s strong, high walls and its numerous artillery pieces made it almost unassailable, even for a crowd of several thousand people.

“Nothing is more terrible than the events at Paris between 12th and 15th July… cannon and armed force used against the Bastille… the Estates declaring the King’s ministers and the civil and military authorities to be responsible to the nation; and the King going on foot, without escort, to the Assembly, almost to apologise… this is how weakness, uncertainty and an imprudent violence will overturn the throne of Louis XVI.” King Gustav of Sweden, 1789 Details of what transpired on the afternoon of July 14th are complex and confused. At first the crowd seemed hopeful that De Launay, like the officers at the Invalides, would relent and simply grant them access to the Bastille’s stores. But De Launay was not the compromising sort, plus he had received official orders from the Hôtel de Ville to hold the Bastille at any cost. Between late morning and mid afternoon the governor received deputations from the crowd. They pleaded with him to withdraw the fortress’s 18 cannon, pointed threateningly at the suburbs below, and to surrender the Bastille’s gunpowder to the people. De Launay agreed to the first but not the second.

At around 1.30PM a small group gained access to the Bastille courtyard through a half raised drawbridge. Fearing a full scale attack, the governor ordered his soldiers to fire on the invaders. It was a fatal miscalculation that would cost De Launay his life. A postcard showing the Bastille governor and his head atop a pike Hearing the garrison had opened fire on the people, crowds around the fortress swelled and for three hours the Bastille came under siege. Two detachments of the French Guard defected and joined the people. The crowd was unable to operate the artillery pieces stolen from the Invalides, so the involvement of mutinous soldiers was critical. By late afternoon the fortress was coming under cannon fire, much of it targeting the drawbridge. Convinced the situation was hopeless and fearing they would be slaughtered, De Launay’s officers urged him to surrender. He first tried bluff, threatening to ignite the gunpowder stores and blow much of eastern Paris into oblivion. When this did not work, De Launay surrendered the fortress at around five o’clock.

A large contingent then stormed the Bastille, arrested De Launay, fraternised with his soldiers and released the prisoners (there were seven in total, four of them counterfeiters). Those who entered the fortress – just under 1,000 in total – were later honoured with the title Vainqueurs de la Bastille (‘Vanquishers of the Bastille’). Leaders ordered De Launay to be taken to the town hall to stand trial, however on the way he was seized by the crowd, choked and murdered. The cause of De Launay’s death is in dispute, however the most popular account suggests he was stabbed and beheaded by an unemployed baker wielding a small bread knife. 1. The Bastille was a large royal fortress located in the rowdy working class neighbourhood of Faubourg Saint-Antoine, eastern Paris. It was erected in the 14th century to defend the city’s eastern approaches. 2. Later, the Bastille was used as a royal prison. It housed mainly political prisoners, libellistes and persons detained on royal lettres de cachet, rather than common criminals. 3.

By the late 1780s the Bastille had few prisoners, yet it stood as a symbol of royal absolutism. On July 14th the people of Paris ransacked the Invalides, stealing weapons, then marched on the Bastille to capture its supplies of gunpowder. 4. The Bastille’s governor, Marquis Bernard de Launay, received deputations from the crowd but refused to hand over the powder. On the afternoon of July 14th the Bastille was stormed by the people and De Launay was arrested and later murdered. 5. Though the fall of the Bastille had few political ramifications, its loss represented a powerful narrative, a symbol of the ordinary people destroying an instrument of royal absolutism. © Alpha History 2015. Content on this page may not be republished or distributed without permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use . This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation: J. Llewellyn and S.

Thompson, “The fall of the Bastille”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], Place de la Bastille - SmarterParis city guide You are here: Home › Place de la Bastille Place de la Bastille The Place de la Bastille is an important historical square in Paris, being at the heart of the French Revolution. It straddles the 4th, 11th and 12th arrondissements . Use our “Ile de la Cité to Bastille” Walk if needed! History This square is well known worldwide for the ‘Storming of the Bastille’ during the French Revolution. ‘The Bastille’ was built between 1370 and 1383 as a fortress to be part of the city’s defenses after the defeat of the French in Poitiers in 1356, during the 100 year war against England. It was converted into a prison in the 17th century, primarily for political and religious prisoners. In the late 18th century, the building had eight towers, two courtyards and an armoury.

The prisoners were held in the towers in relatively large furnished rooms, with the infamous rat-infested dungeons no longer in use. This wasn’t the worst prison in France, or even Paris, but it was described as a place of horror and oppression in popular literature. The confrontation between the people of Paris and the ‘Ancien Régime’ led to the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. The people were looking to take over the prison and also get to the arms and gunpowder stored there. By 1790 there was nothing left of the building. The area was turned into a square celebrating liberty in 1792. The intent was to build a column, but this did not happen and a fountain was built in its place in 1793. A guillotine was installed on the place (known as place Antoine at the time) on the 9th of June 1794, and 75 people lost their heads before it was moved to Nation (known as place du Trône-Renversé at the time) on the 14th June of the same year.

In 1808 Napoléon planned for a monument in the form of a large bronze elephant to be built here, and got as far as installing a plaster model. This was immortalised in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, but it was then taken down. The July Column was finally put in place, in commemoration of another uprising for liberty in 1830, and inaugurated in 1840. The visit There is nothing left of the old prison on the Place de la Bastille that we see today, but the outline of the fort has been marked out on the ground in special paving stones. The Colonne de Juillet that stands in the centre of the square commemorates the events of the July Revolution of 1830. If you want to see remains of one of the towers of the fort, discovered when the metro line was being installed in 1899, you will find these in the nearby Square Henri-Galli (walk down Bvd Henry IV). Also of note on the square is the Opera Bastille, which is the new home of the ‘Opera de Paris’ since they moved here from the Opera Garnier . Performances here range from dance to theatre.

You will see groups of friends gathered on the steps as this is a popular meeting point for Parisians. You can also see a section of the Paris canal system to the South of the square, the marina of the Basin de l’Arsenal . The canal runs from the North of Paris, through the Bassin de la Villette , through a tunnel underneath the Bastille, and in to the Basin de l’Arsenal , before joining the Seine. There is a large, open-air, market on Thursdays and Sundays in the central section of the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir. You can pick up some fresh fruit, fish, meat, cheese and bread here for a lovely picnic before heading over to the Place des Vosges and the little streets of the Marais. The north-eastern area of Bastille is busy at night with its many cafés, bars, night clubs, and concert halls. Things to know Due to its historical significance, the square is often the gathering point for political demonstrations. The crowds can get quite big when this happens so it may be worth letting them pass before you do your sightseeing. You can take a boat trip in the tunnels underneath the Bastille with Paris Canal .

If you are sporty and fancy seeing Paris a little differently, you can rent skates from a nearby shop and join in the Sunday skate – this is a (free) skate tour, open to all, organised by ‘Rollers et Coquillages’ every Sunday at 14h30 with volunteers to ensure safety, and backed up by police and ambulances ‘just in case’. Share this: The perfect stop for a one-hour visit if you are in the neighbourhood of Saint Germain des Prés or on your way to the Bon Marché department store, the ... We’re Social The History of Paris - Paris.fr 1,8118,8125 The History of Paris From Lutetia to the Napoleon Bonaparte Empire, from the declaration of the Republic to the Paris Commune: Paris was right at the heart of events that marked French history and shaped its present. Here is a look back to the birth of this major city. Antiquity : Gaul Even though the site of today’s Paris has been inhabited for 90000 years (Mesolithic period), the city’s history really began in the 3rd century BC.

At this time, the Parisii, a tribe in Gaul, took up residence in this area, a strategic crossing point towards the north of the country and for the trading route of the Seine river (ou for the river trade along the Seine river). Aware of the strategic importance of the location, Julius Caesar sent his troops to crush the Gauls. This was in 52 BC and is known as the battle of Lutetia, won by the occupying forces. A roman city was then built on the left bank of the Seine, along the northern slope of Sainte-Geneviève hill. Lutetia started to take shape. At the end of the 1st century AD, the “Arènes de Lutèce” amphitheatre and the Cluny public baths were constructed. The baths were supplied with water from an aqueduct alongside the Bièvre, a river which has since been buried under the city. These buildings reflect a lifestyle which was typically Roman. In the 4th century, Lutetia became a garrison town for troops fighting the Barbarians on the northern and eastern frontiers of Gaul.. The city moved to the Île de la Cité wich was fortified and renamed Paris.

In 451, an event took place which made the history books: the nun Saint-Geneviève succeeded in diverting the course of Attila the Hun and his army who wanted to take the city. She became the patron saint of Paris. The Middle Ages: at the heart of the Kingdom of France In 508, Clovis, king of the Franks, made Paris the capital of his kingdom. In the 8th century, the centre of the Carolingian Empire shifted to the Northeast. Yet the city took on a new dimension under Hugues Capet. Capet, Count of Paris was elected King of France in 987 and founded a new dynsasty, the Capetians. Then Louis VI, known as Louis the Fat, built a fortification, the Châtelet, around the rebuilt Grand-Pont (currently the Pont au change). The construction of Notre-Dame cathedral began in 1163 (and was completed in 1345). Then, Philippe Auguste, a great urban planner, left his mark on Paris by surrounding it with walls and building the fortress of the Louvre. Paris is consecrated capital under his reign.

In the 13th century, Paris was the most populated (approximately 200,000 inhabitants) and the richest city in the West. Up to this period the city was governed by one man, the King’s provost. In 1268, the powerful boatmen’s guild adopted its motto, « Fluctuat nec mergitur » (the boat is beaten by the waves but does not sink), which later became that of Paris. In the 14th century, the municipality enjoyed real authority, yet over the following centuries was regularly brought to heel by the royal powers. In the 15th century, Paris was occupied by the English for sixteen years. The modern era: the birth of royal squares In the middle of the 16th century, under the reign of François 1st, the capital grew in beauty with Renaissance constructions, such as the new Louvre and the Hôtel de Ville. At this time, several historic buildings were built, including the Natural History Museum and the Luxembourg Palace. From the reign of King Henri IV, the city has the role of honouring the sovereign and praising his power.

Royal squares were created for this purpose: Place Dauphine for Henri IV, Place de la Concorde for Louis XV, Place des Vosges for Louis XIII, etc. 1648 saw the beginning of the Frond, a people’s uprising which lasted until 1653. In 1680, Louis XIV left the Louvre Palace, which was until then the residence of the Kings of France, to take up residence in Versailles, to the west of Paris. He died there after a 72-year reign. The Bastille: symbol of the Revolution On 14 July 1789, Parisians appalled by the King’s pressure on the new assembly formed by the third estate, took siege of the Bastille fortress, a symbol of absolutism. This event is the start of the French Revolution and the decline of the divine right of monarchs in France. On 17 July, the national tricolour flag with the colours of Paris (blue and red) and of the King (white) was adopted at the Hôtel de Ville by Louis XVI. Jean-Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor, was elected on 15 July 1789.

The Republic was declared for the first time in 1792. In 1793, Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette were executed on the Place de la Concorde. The Reign of Terror took hold. Then, a coup d’etat by Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the French Directory and put an end to the Revolution. Prefect Haussmann transforms Paris Napoleon was crowned emperor in Notre-Dame cathedral in 1804. He gave Paris the Ourcq canal, the embankments, the creation of the sewerage system, a numbered house system, etc. Later, the barricades went up in the capital: the July revolution toppled Charles X in 1830. Six years later, under Louis-Philippe, work is completed on the Arc de Triomphe. The 1848 Revolution led to the proclamation of the 2nd Republic. In 1852 and during the Second Empire, the capital is transformed under the leadership of Prefect Haussmann. He doubled the width of traffic lanes, made pavements commonplace, etc.

He also created 2,000 hectares of woodland and planted 90,000 trees along major roads. He developed an approximately 500-km-long sewerage network. The five train stations were completed in 1847. Between 1855 and 1880, the sales price of buildings increased by 136%. The 3rd Republic was declared in 1870 at the Hôtel de Ville. The Prussians invaded Paris. The Paris Commune was crushed during the ‘Semaine sanglante’ (bloody week). The outcome was 20 to 30,000 victims, a third of the city was burned down and the Hôtel de Ville destroyed. Paris, under siege, lost its status as capital of France for a time. In 1889, the Eiffel Tower was opened during a universal exhibition. In 1910, Paris was once again flooded when the Seine burst its banks in its hundred-year cycle. Paris and the two World Wars In World War One, Paris was saved from the German offensive by the Battle of the Marne.

However, the city could not escape German occupation from 1940 to 1944. The collaborationist State, governed by Marshal Pétain, is based in Vichy. In London, the free France organised its forces led by General de Gaulle. In 1942, 12,000 Jews were arrested and gathered together at the Vélodrome d’Hiver to be deported. Paris was liberated on 25 August 1944. The following day, General de Gaulle paraded down the Champs-Élysées. The city was saved: the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz, in charge of defence in Paris, disobeyed Hitler’s order to demolish the capital’s historic buildings. From Montparnasse tower to the tram’s comeback… Many tower blocks were built in the city in the 1960s. In May 1968, a student revolution took place around the Sorbonne University (5th arrondissement). In the early 1970s, the Paris ring road, the Montparnasse tower and the Palais des Congrès convention centre were completed.

In 1977, Jacques Chirac was elected Mayor of Paris: the first mayor since 1871. Many important buildings continue to flourish: the Opera Bastille, the Grande Arche de la Défense, the Stade de France, etc. In 2001, the new City Hall team, led by Bertrand Delanoë, took charge of the city. In December 2006, the tramway made a comeback in the south of Paris: the first to be operated in the capital in 69 years! For more information: History of Paris, France PUBLISHED BY THE FRENCH AMERICAN CULTURAL FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON, D.C. HISTORY of PARIS Paris is more than 2,000 years old. Gauls of the Parisii tribe settled there between 250 and 200 BC and founded a fishing village on an island in the river that is the present-day Ile de la Cité -- the center around which Paris developed.

Known as Lutetia (Lutece) in ancient times, Paris was conquered by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, and existed as a regional center under the Romans and in the early Middle Ages. In 987, HUGH CAPET, Count of Paris, became king of France, and under his successors, the CAPETIANS, the city's position as the nation's capital became established. Often characterized as spirited and rebellious, the people of Paris first declared themselves an independent commune under the leadership of Etienne Marcel in 1355-58. The storming of the Bastille in 1789 was the first of a series of key actions by the Parisian people during the FRENCH REVOLUTION. Paris also played a major role in the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. In 1871, during the FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR , the city was besieged for four months until France surrendered. After German troops withdrew, French radicals briefly established the COMMUNE OF PARIS.

During World War I the Germans were prevented from reaching Paris, but they occupied the city during World War II from 1940 to 1944. Paris was again the scene of violence during the student riots of 1968. Paris today maintains its importance, character, and charm, though its appearance is being transformed by structures such as the BEAUBOURG and by the ambitious grands projets building program carried out under the presidency of François Mitterrand. In addition to the La Défense arch and the Bastille Opéra, Mitterrand's projects have included the renovation of the Louvre by architect I. M. Pei, the La Villette complex on the northeastern edge of the city, and, in the southeast, the Bibliothèque de France, a great computer-age library. Planning for Paris and the Paris Basin region includes consideration of large land areas in the Seine River valley all the way to the mouth of the river. New towns, parks, industrial locations, and expanded functions of existing towns are contemplated for this corridor on both sides of the Seine. Lawrence M.

Sommers Source: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Release #8, ©1996 Bibliography: Chelminski, Rudolph, Paris (1977); Couperie, Pierre, Paris through the Ages, trans. by Marilyn Low (1971); Evenson, Norma, Paris (1979); Flanner, Janet, Paris Journal, 2 vols. (1966-71) and Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-39 (1972); Roche, Daniel, The People of Paris (1987); Seigel, Jerrold, Bohemian Paris (1987); Thomson, David, Renaissance Paris (1984). CLICK HERE FOR A Paris | Buildings | EMPORIS Buildings 105 km² (41 mi²) Altitude 33 m Paris is the capital of France , and to many people the cultural capital of the world. Ever since the 12th Century the city has had an influence on world history, art, and civilization that very few places can rival.

It would be impossible to write a world history of painting, music, philosophy, literature, architecture, cinema, or fashion that ignores Paris. In architecture, Paris is the birthplace of the Gothic style and has also given us Beaux-arts, art nouveau, art deco, and many contributions to modernism. The city is an amazingly harmonious collection of beautiful and inventive buildings, all arranged in an urban plan that combines the best aspects of rationality and of residual medieval chaos. Paris is built around a wide curve in the Seine River, which divides the city into a larger Right Bank (the north) and Left Bank, with two small but important islands in between. There are several focal points, especially the Place de la Concorde, Montmartre, the Bastille, and the three great symbols of Paris: the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe. Today the major centers of business are located around the fringes, especially in the towering cluster of buildings at La Défense . The buildings at La Défense are officially not part of Paris and are listed under their three respective satellite cities Courbevoie , Puteaux , and Nanterre .

Zones Clichy-Batignolles (7) , Front de Seine (22) , Gare de Lyon (13) , La Défense (141) , Paris Rive Gauche (113) Boroughs

Question: The building of historical significance known as the Bastille is in which city?
Answer: Paris