Wonderful Paris [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION rjROM the first traces of humán ri habitation during Prehistoric times up to the gigantic local authority that we see today, the destiny of Paris has created the history and the past of Francé itself Its main attraction was geographical in nature-the Seine drew the Celts of the Párisii tribe to the Ile de la Cité, the marshland which became known as Lutetia. Led by Julius Caesar, the Román invaders who gainéd overall mastery of the country in 52 B.C. extended their sovereignty to the Left Bank. They occupied the town for more than three centuries, bringing it "Pax romana" and its very first commercial activities within a civilisation which has left us remains such as the Aréna of Lutetia or the baths in the Cluny Residence. With the arrival of the Barbarians in the latter part of the 3rd Century, peace was shattered and the Román emperors Julián and Valentinian, who lived in the first palace on the island (the forerunner of the Law Courts), strengthened their hold on authority. The population again huddled close to the walled Ile de la Cité. In 508, Clovis defeated the Huns and established Merovingian supremacy on the island, which had taken the name "Paris." Pippin the Short became the first of the Carolingian monarchs in 751; with the coming of Charlemagne, the lineage was to favour Germany and Aix-laChapelle to the detriment of Paris which suffered invasion from the Vikings in the 9th Century. In 987, when the first king in the third dynasty, Hugh Capet, mounted the throne, Paris was firmly established as the capital from which power was to radiate throughout the entire area of what we now know as the Paris Basin. The town's importance was soon to cause problems with provinThe Eiffel Tower at night cial nobility. Paris, though, developed its own structure and began to prosper, thanks mainly to the advantages of the river. This was the time chosen by Bishop Maurice de Sully to build one of the finest examples of Parisian architecture- Notre-Dame. In the I2th Century, Philip Augustus fixed the boundaries of the capital within a new wall which was quickly to prove too restricting. At the same time, the creation of the university and numerous colleges was accompanied by an increase in the population and the urbanisation of the town which acquired a council in 1260 headed by the Dean of Guilds. The Right Bank, too, became inhabited with the setting up of the first markét. On the foreign affairs front the English, who had set their hearts on the kingdom of Francé, began the One Hundred Years' War in 1337. This was the indirect cause of the death of the Dean of Guilds, Étien ne Marcél, who r ebei led against royal authority in 1357. Peace returned for a short time during the reign of Charles V who had the Bastille Prison built and the Louvre extended. The 15th Century was marked by the bloody return of the war with Joan of Arc's moment of devotion to duty and the consecration of King Henry VI of England in Notre-Dame. At the same time, the people had to fight the outbreak of terrible epidemics of plague. Louis XI who signed the peace treaty with England gave royal authority a stronger basis and encouraged national unity, creating an economic redevelopment which was to last until the 16th Century with the establishment of the first French printing works in the Sorbonne, the building of the Town Hall, the rebuilding of the Louvre and the development of a whole rangé of artistic and cultural activities. The monarchs may have had a marked preference for the gentle banks of the Loire where they built their castles, but Paris already had its first bards. The only discordant note in this century was the bittér struggle against the Protestants with its sinister climax, the St.Bartholomew's Day Massacre on the night of 24th August 1572. Henri IV, who had decided that "Paris was worth going to Mass for," abjured his Calvinist beliefs. He had the place Royale (now the place des Vosges), the place Dauphine and the PontNeuf built and the town modernised