Place de la Bastille
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Bastille | |
| Coordinates | 48°51′11″N 2°22′9″E / 48.85306°N 2.36917°E |
|---|---|
| Construction | |
| Completion | 27 June 1792 |
The Place de la Bastille (French pronunciation:
The square straddles 3
The square is home to concerts and similar events. The north-eastern area of Bastille is busy at
History
Early history of the Bastille
The Bastille was built between 1370 and 1383 during the reign of King
By the late 18th century, the building was made up of eight close-packed towers, around 24 m (80 ft) high, surrounding two courtyards and the armoury. The prisoners were held within the 5-7 story towers, each having a room around 4.6 m (15 ft) across and containing various articles of furniture. The infamous cachots (dungeons), the oozing, vermin-infested subterranean cells were no longer in use, since the respective reigns of
Storming of the Bastille
The confrontation between the commoners and the
A crowd of around 600 people gathered outside around mid-morning, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of the guns and the release of the arms and gunpowder. Two people chosen to represent those gathered were invited into the fortress and slow negotiations began.
In the early afternoon, the crowd broke into the undefended outer courtyard and the chains on the drawbridge to the inner courtyard were cut. A spasmodic exchange of gunfire began; in mid-afternoon the crowd was reinforced by mutinous
Later history
On 16 June 1792, the area occupied by the
In 1808, as part of several urban improvement projects for Paris,
In 1833,
The area was damaged during the events of the Paris Commune in spring 1871.
The area today
The current Place de la Bastille is located on the former fort's site. In addition to the July Column, it is also home to the Opéra Bastille. The large ditch (fossé) behind the former fort has been transformed into a marina for pleasure boats, the Bassin de l'Arsenal, to the south, which is bordered by the Boulevard de la Bastille. To the north, a covered canal, the Canal Saint-Martin, extends north from the marina beneath the vehicular roundabout that borders the location of the fort, and then continues for about 4.4 kilometers to the Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad.
On Thursdays and Sundays, a large, open-air market occupies part of the park to the north of the Place de la Bastille, along the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir. Consumers can find fresh fruit, fish, meat, cheese and bread along with clothing and typical flea market items.
Some undemolished remains of one tower of the fort were discovered during excavation for the Métro (rail mass-transit system) in 1899, and were moved to a park (the Square Henri-Galli) a few hundred metres away, where they are displayed today. The original outline of the fort is also marked on the pavement of streets and pathways that pass over its former location, in the form of special paving stones. A café and some other businesses largely occupy the location of the fort, and the Rue Saint-Antoine passes directly over it as it opens onto the roundabout of the Bastille.
Gallery
- New situation after the relayout and the removal of the large road south of the monument (2021)
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Place de la Bastille in 2020 -
Now with a pedestrian space at the south side of the monument -
The contours of the former Bastille fort -
The Opéra Bastille -
Christmas trees on the square
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- Old situation with the large road south of the monument (before the relayout of 2019-2021)
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See also
External links
- Satellite image from Google Maps
- Images of the July Column (Insecula)
- Gilded statue, Génie de la Liberté, at the summit of the Column (Webshots user photo - links to bigger version)
- L'Éléphant de la Bastille
- Place de la Bastille current photographs and of the years 1900
- The 1974 Bastille day Parade onf the Place de la Bastille, full video broadcast by the French National Audiovisual Institute