Art and History of Paris and Versailles [antikvár]

Paris in History f n the beginning what I was eventually to beI come Paris was beated on the banks of a river with a scattering of islands form ing a natural ford. Recent excavations have brought to light a habitat dating to many thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Although this nucleus may not have been continuously inhabited, around the 3rd century B.C. a Celtic peoples, the Párisii, lived here in a village known as Lucoticia, or Lutetia. Although the famous gold staters bear witness to their economic prosperity, there were other more powerful tribes in Gaul. Even so the fact that they were ab le to send eight thousand men to Vercingetorix when the land rose up against the invading Romans, leads us to believe that the settlement numbered around fifty thousand inhabitants and perhaps even more. Not enough to hold out against the Román legions, and Labienus, Caesar's lieutenant, defeated the Párisii and their chief Camulogen in the year 52, probably on the plain of Grenelle. For the next four centuries Lutetia was an integrál part of the Román world, and the monuments and countless vestiges conserved in the territory bear witness to its increasing prosperity. While it was not one of the greater cities of Román Gaul, the fact that it was situated at the crossroads of a route which joined north and south and a water way, represented by the Seine, was not to be underestimated. These two great natural highways became increasingly important during the period of rebellions and disorders and it was in Lutetia, in all likelihood on the lle de la Cité, that Julián was proclaimed Román emperor in the year 360. With St. Denis and St. Marcel, Christianity was already deeply rooted in the city which was beginning to be called Paris. The Barbarian invasions ofthe 4th century forced numerous inhabitants of the left bank to seek refuge on the lle de la Cité, around which ramparts were built. Of the various invasions in the centuries to follow mention must be made ofthat ofthe Huns, brought to a halt by St. Geneviéve who instilled courage in the hearts of the inhabitants. Troubled times continued until the arrival of Clovis, who chose Paris as the capital of his kingdom. It was here that he founded the abbey of Sainte-Geneviéve and here that he died in the year 511. His successors safeguarded the supremacy of the city, excluding it from the dynastic partitions and building churches. But with the Carolingians the city began its clecline, hastened by the Norman invasions in the 9th century. The left bank was clefinitively abandoned and the inhabitants took refuge on the isi and, where they remained tiII the end of the century when they ventured forth anew, to settle this time on the right bank. When Hughes Capet, count of Paris, mounted the throne of Francé, the destiny of the city and that of the kingdom became one and the same. The great highways of trade and communication which flowed together on the right banks favored the development of mercantile activities. In the 12th century Louis VI transferred the generál markets (the Halles) to the area known as Champeaux, where they were to remain for more than eight hundred years. Churches were either built anew or enlarged on the heights overlooking the swamplands which were gradually reclaimed and tilled, while the lle de la Cité, densely populated, became the center of regal and ecclesiastic authority. Fortified bridges guaranteed passage to the right bank, center for trade and activity, as well as the left bank, which had been practically abandoned for a long time and which now returned to life thanks to the presence of students. After numerous disputes between the king and the bishop, in 1209 the students finally succeeded in collecting the various teaching centers together under the name of University, and for a long period this alsó indicated the entire left bank. King Philip II Augustus, one of the great builders of Paris, had the quarters of both banks circled by defensive walls, of which vestiges still remain. He had the streets paved, created the first fountains and had the tower of the Louvre, symbol of royal power, built. Development was alsó favored by the international fame of Saint Louis. Since the king almost always resided in the city, the aristocracy built their mansions here while the houses of the middle classes and artisans alsó grew apace. Generally timber frame structures, with the gable facing onto the Street and shops on the ground floor, these houses were built one next to the other along the narrow streets, on the bridges and on the banks, often blocking the view of the river. In the 14th century, the capital counted about 200,000 inhabitants and the city continued its political, financial and commercial growth, in particular on the right bank, which meant that as early as 1356 a new city wall had to be built to accommodate the úrban expansion northwards. But the defeats infHeted during the Hundred Years War, the captivity of John the Good and the weak-