Paris [antikvár]

HISTORICAL NOTE Writing a brief historica! outiiné of Paris is no easy ! task: few cities have been so involved in greal events [ which have changed the course of history. Its founders ' were probably the Gauls, who built a small settlement on the left bank of the Seine. The Romans reached here at an early stage, led by Jidius Caesar, who in his " Gallic Wars " repeatedly menlions the town under the name of Lutetia. As a result of the continued and increasingly serious threat of the barbarian invasions, the originál settlement was transferred to the island called Ile-de-la-Cité, from which point a slow but continuous expansion on both banks of the river began. The simple residence first of the Merovingian then of the Carolingian kings, Paris became a true capital in the year 987 when Ugo Capeto founded a new dynasty, raising the city to a status it was to retain throughout the entire course of the history of Francé. From this moment, Paris began to develop not only as an úrban centre, but alsó from the cultural point of view. The accession to the throne of Philippe II Auguste, who reigned from 1180 to 1223, marked the beginning of one of Paris's most splendid periods: the construction of the Louvre was begun and in 1215 the University was founded. New splendour came with the reign of Louis IX (Louis the Blessed), which last ed from 1226 to 1270 and during which the Sainte-Chapelle was built and work on Notre-Dame considerably advanced. Under the following dynasty, that of the Valois, Paris experienced one of the most bittér periods in its history: 1358 was the year of the revolt hecided by the leader of the Parisian mercltants, Etienne Marcel. Charles V reestablished order, being responsible among other things for the construction of the Bastille, but the peace did not last. The civil war waged between the Armagnac and Burgundián factions permitted the occupation of Francé by England, Henry VI being crowned King of Francé in Notre-Dame in 1430. Finally, in 1437, Charles VII reconquered Paris but there were renewed internecine struggles and increasingly bloody revolts, altemating with terrible epidemics of the plague, which devastated the already distressed population. Then, throughout the 16th century, the importance of Paris was diminished in favour of the castles of the Loire, which the various kings who succeeded to the throne of Francé chose as their dwellings. This did nothing to put a halt to the internecine strife in the capital itself. The spread of the Protestant movement lay at the origin of the bloody religious struggles which for a long time rent Paris and Francé, culminating in the massacre of the Huguenots on 24 August 1572, thefamous Night of St. Bartholomew. After the assassination of Henry III at St. Cloud by the young Jacques Clément in 1589, the city was besieged for four long years until it opened its gates to Henry IV, who had abandoned his originál faith and been converted to Catholicism. AH the same, at the beginning of the 17th century Paris already had a population of 300,000 persons. The city continued to grow in importance as a cultural and political centre, above all under the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, who in 1635 founded the Académie Franfaise. During the new dynasty of the Bourbons, the city expanded even more: by 1715, during the reign of Louis XIV, it had half a millión inhabitants. But Paris without doubt gained its place in history in 1789 with the beginning of the Frencli Revolution, often seen as marking the birth of the modern world. Usually the Revolution is considered to have begun on 14 July of that year, when the people seized possession of that symbol of absolutism and terror, the prison of the Bastille. During the years which ensued, the historical developments came in ever more rapid succession: the monarchy feli, the Reign of Terror began, to be followed by the Thermidorian reaction, and in a short period of time the figures which had dominated the Parisian political scene disappeared for ever. What the city had suffered during those years (the loss of humán life and the irreparable destruction of works of art) was forgottén with the advent of the Empire and the magnificent court which Napoleon created in 1804, when he was crowned in Notre-Dame by Popé Pius VII. From 1804 to 1814 the city was embellished with one artistic masterpiece after another: the column was ereded in Place Vendöme, the Arch of Triumph iras built and work continued on the Louvre, where in the luxurious Sálon Carré in 1810 the marriage between Napoleon and Marié Louise of Austria was celebrated. Later again, Paris saw the fali of other monarchies, those of Charles X and Louis Philippe Bourbon-Orléans, and the birth of the Second Republic with the rise to the throne of Napoleon III. It was during the reign of the latter that Báron Haussman was given the task of replanning the city, thus solving