The Evolution of Paris: A Brief History of the French Capitol's Urban Morphology

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GEOG 3305: Urban Design Prof. Robson Emma Georgeff 29/4/2019 The Evolution of Paris: A Brief History of the French Capitol’s Urban Morphology

A city marked by the monarchical whims of past leaders, Paris is seemingly reflective of only its bloody history. What the network of monuments do not reveal, however, is the underlying scheme already implemented by ancient societies, some dating as far back as 50 B.C. Without the influences of the previous residents, Paris would not be the bustling, cultural center that it is today. Centuries of radial, axial, and gridded urban design, spanning across dozens of cultures and rulers, still blatantly exist in the French capital; this wild mix within Paris’s urban fabric make it one of the most vibrant and historical European cities.

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Beginnings of Paris: The Parisii and the Romans Paris’ inception started from the settlement of Celtic fishermen, (from a tribe called the Gauls), at the central island of the iconic Seine River, further spilling onto the left banks. The Gauls honoured the river in their religion as well as in their daily lives; they used the Seine to trade with other river towns as far as Spain (Norris 2012). Giving credit to the river they worshipped, the successful traders “made the first real maps of the city, marking the dangers of the river, its flood tides and sandbanks” (Hussey 2006). The settlement, both fed and fortified by a surrounding river, would serve as a strategic stronghold, then later morph into an impressive, symbolic city node.

Though the Gauls did not leave urban traces of their settlement that can be seen today, the Celtic tribe’s lasting imprint lives in the ​place​ they chose for their home. The geographical center of the city, I’le de la Cite, is the exact location of the first settlement built by the Gauls.

Radial patterns in Paris’ roads and paths lead to I’le de la Cite, suggesting the importance of its history and meaning. Additionally, many renowned architectural landmarks (including the recently burned Notre Dame Cathedral) are located on this central island, furthering its identity as the nucleus. Without the Parisii choosing such a strategic location and flourishing from river trade, current-day Paris would have a much different structure, and it could even be argued if the city would resemble what it has become at all. The Romans would later take advantage of this stronghold under the leadership of Julius Caesar.

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The Roman Conquering The expansion of the Roman Empire also included the demise of the Gaul, which ranged all the way from northern Italy to northern Belgium. Julius Caesar’s defeat of Parisii, (later named Lutetia), in 54 BC marked an intensity in Roman conquest and eventually paved the road for the Republic’s most powerful years. The Roman Empire’s strength and affinity to urbanization allowed Lutetia to thrive as a river trade city, and during this time, the settlement expanded significantly. Lutetia even became “sufficiently wealthy to mint gold coins” (Livius 2011). Prior to the Roman victory, the Gallic settlement was not at all urban: members of the fishing villages relied on the river as their main mode of transportation, and neighborhoods formed “homely clusters of huts with stockades for animals,” which reflected the tribe’s nomadic roots (Hussey 2006). Only after the Romans built bridges and roads did Paris start to resemble a more permanent, and urban, city.

The lasting effect of the Romans in Paris is evident in the gridded layout of the old city, particularly the axial structure of the main roads, some of which still exist today. All throughout the modern-day site of Lutetia are the grid patterns established by Roman planners. Though Paris embodies other grid forms outside the limits of Lutetia, the Roman grid can be identified by their unique measurements. Their grid follows the pattern of 300 Roman feet per unit, “with occasional subdivisions of 150 feet” (Ellis 2000). Additionally, the Roman grid is centered around the main axis they have established, (primarily present day Rue Saint-Jacques, as well as Boulevard Saint Michel, Rue Saint-Martin and Rue Saint-Denis), which run roughly north-south from the left bank across the Seine and I’le de la Cite to the right bank. From a plan view, both the Roman grid and axis can easily be observed as its own, distinct section when compared to Paris’ more radial forms.

The Romans also succeeded in making public space, using buildings as edges to shape plazas and to guide traffic. In Lutetia’s left bank, a central forum between the two main axial roads served as the meeting place for political and public events. Though that particular public space doesn’t exist today, the buildings in present-day Lutetia reveal the space-making tendencies of the Roman Empire in their urban pattern. Not only do the built structures line streets, funneling pedestrian circulation, but they also cluster around public green spaces or plazas. Once such example includes the front of the Thermes de Cluny; streets and stores outline this historic Roman bath while still leaving a gathering place near the entrance.

Northeast of Thermes de Cluny runs Rue Dante, which seemingly breaks the Roman grid as a diagonal street. However, Rue Dante is the result of careful Roman planning -- it actually leads pedestrians from the busy market street (and River Seine) to the baths and its courtyard.

Roman influence on Paris remains small today, due to the barbaric wars and eventual take-over of King Clovis of the Francs in the 5th century. This marks the beginning of Paris as a world capital, first as a small nation, then as a dominating force when Hugues Capet of the Capetians dramatically expanded the city.

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Roman Forum example

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Roman Axis

Paris in the Middle Ages Paris began to boom during medieval times as the Frankish capital, in both population and city development. The city owes its radial form and outward growth patterns to the enclosed, walled planning schemes of that time. What the Romans failed to learn, (and what ultimately led to their defeat), was that cities need protection from invading forces. As a

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response to this Roman failure, medieval military values as well as the heavy presence of religion brought to Paris the concept of using walls to make a sealed, enclosed space; this can be seen in both the rise of cloister gardens and stone defenses around the outer edges of the city. Paris was also a densely populated, rapidly growing medieval city, which resulted in radial expansion patterns that would surpass the old walls and create a need for a new defenses that encompassed the old city within. The radial pattern caused the layered concentric circle outline of Paris that we see today. Demolition of past city walls also led to the addition of grand boulevards throughout Paris that both funnel transportation and suggest strong monarchical government rule.

The first major city wall that surrounded Paris was built by King Philip Augustus, and its position around the Roman city elements with I’le de la Cite as the nucleus would “become one of the first organizing elements from the Medieval period” (Ellis 2000). The walls restricted developable space -- residences and commercial areas had to fit inside the walls while agricultural fields were typically left outside the main city. Eventually, development encroached onto the main bridges connecting the left bank, the I’le de la Cite, and the right bank, making them “more than a way to get from one part of the city to another … they were literally markets themselves” (Ellis 2000). Though the wall of Philip Augustus was dismantled in the 1500s, it is still a prominent feature still visible in Paris’s current urban fabric, having since been transformed into a main boulevard.

Today, the influence of the historic wall of Philip Augustus and the main bridges of that era are apparent through the form, orientation, and programming of the city blocks in Paris’s central district. Unlike newer, American cities where residential and commercial blocks form a strict grid, the blocks in the center of Paris follow the old form of the wall. On the northwestern side of the city center is a clear statement of the old wall, formed by parallel roadways that arc around to east of the right bank. The left bank shows a similar pattern; roadways and blocks also mimic the historic path of the medieval wall.

Similar to their historical use, the Pont Saint Michel, Pont au Change, Pont des Coeurs, and Pont Notre Dame still act today not only as connectors between major destinations, but they also promote activity as pedestrian hubs, which connects the river with city nucleus.

During the Middle Ages, these bridges actually supported a dense corridor of commercial and residential buildings. Although there are no longer any structures on the bridges today, and much of I’le de la Cite has been changed by Haussmann’s plans, they still embody the strong, radial axes of Paris’s walled days. One clear example of bridges acting as a pedestrian hub is the sandwiching of a plaza west of the Cathedrale Notre Dame.

After the wall of Philip Augustus, three more major city fortifications were erected to compensate for the outward growth of Paris and its increasing need for border control. The second wall of Charles V, built around 1400, circumvented the wall of Philip Augustus only on the right bank of the Seine. Louis the XIV would later transform part of the wall into “promenades which would become the ​grands boulevards​ of today” (Pravin 2015).

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Subsequently, the ​boulevards exterieurs​ were once part of the Wall of the Ferme generale, a mid 1700s tariff wall; and the Thiers wall, constructed as a defense by 1830 King Louis-Philippe, became the ​boulevards peripheriques,​ that separate Paris from its suburbs today. Each circular section currently reflects the urban strategies of the period when the outlining walls were built.

Smaller, compact city blocks follow a grid oriented to the earlier walls, while in contrast, larger blocks on the outskirts, connected by urban parks and roundabouts, reflect the urban transformation of the Haussmann era.

Bridges as pedestrian connectors

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4 walls

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The Haussmann Transformation A skyrocketing population combined with poor urban living conditions in the center of the city paved the road for the bloody French Revolution that would dramatically alter the urban fabric of the capital city. Georges-Eugene Haussmann, hired by Napoleon III, designed sweeping, axial boulevards throughout the streets of Paris as both a means to “rid the town of the … centers of epidemics” (Saalman 1971) and to promote military order -- the widened streets would prevent rebel barricades and allow armed forces to easily travel through the city.

Haussmann “envisioned a city focused visually and functionally on major institutions” (Pravin 2015), and part of his strategy was to link major architectural units with great avenues.

In his attempt to organize the city, Haussmann incorporated an urban grid across the medieval circles, forming a sector structure in contrast to the old concentric ring structure. He expanded the Roman north-south axis and created an east-west boulevard anchored by two massive public parks on the periphery. This cross, with its center based around the I’le de la Cite, serves as the connecting basis for navigating between city center and outskirts. In addition to the cross-axis, roundabouts linked major boulevards to Paris landmarks, and often were landmarks by themselves. The location of these boulevards are typically near district edges, making a sort of epicenter that directs transportation outward into surrounding districts.

Haussmann had a “penchant for lining up boulevards on buildings and monuments” as a way to

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give the city dramatic views of Paris’s grandeur (Saalman 1971). One such example is the alignment of the Pantheon with the Colonne de la Bastille along the Pont Sully.

Haussmann also created the twenty districts, or ​arrondissements,​ that are still in effect today. Though they still closely follow the old, circular wall format of the medieval times, Haussmann aimed to “modernize the city” by “destroy[ing] the old heterogeneous quarters in the city center and creat[ing] large new quarters” on the outskirts (Pravin 2015). As a result of this concept, the I’le de la Cite changed from “a bustling core” into an “institutional center” (Saalman 1971). Haussmann removed the crowded residential blocks to in order to visually isolate Notre-Dame, and only a small part of the original residential development “remained at the northeast corner of the island” (Saalman 1971). Without its surrounding network of alleyways, close shops, and apartments, Notre-Dame changed from what once was a village cathedral into a national monument. Lacking major monuments that could compete with those on the I’le de la Cite, I’le Saint Louis remains as the mixed commercial and residential neighborhood of its medieval days.

For the development of the districts on the outskirts, Haussmann again avoids the tight residential network by adhering to newly discovered sanitary standards. At this time in Paris’s history, lack of clean water, overcrowding, and poor sewage contributed to much of the suffering of the lower class. Inspired by other ‘city beautiful’ movements around the world, Haussmann led Paris into a major increase in public parks. Most of the new parks are concentrated on the outer districts of the city, introducing recreation for the middle and upper, (bourgeoisie) classes. An example includes the neighborhood surrounding the Buttes-Chaumont in the nineteenth district, which clearly reveals Haussmann’s interpretation of a cleaner, less-crowed city as a stark contrast to the gridded, compressed neighborhoods in the older district next door.

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I’le de la Cite -- Residential blocks (black) next to institutional blocks (red)

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Haussmann roundabout and boulevard

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N/S axis

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Block discrepancies due to historic wall and Haussmann’s districts

Districts and parks of Paris

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Paris not only continues to reflect French nationalism through Haussmann’s work, but the city also serves as one of Europe’s leading capitals in preserving historic urban monuments and ancient city form. Similar to other ancient cities like Rome or Istanbul, Paris urban code refuses to allow a concentration of high rises near the city core -- and we see this in the denial of Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin of 1925. While Paris continues to make important improvements in modern infrastructure, it will continue as a city of iconic grandeur, thanks to the visible layers of its past.

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Works Cited Ellis, Clifton (2000). ​Paris: The Development of Roman and Medieval Urban Forms.​ Retrieved from http://www.arch.ttu.edu/people/faculty/ellis_c/Paris_Lectures/2%20Roman%20and%20Medie val%20Paris%20pdf.pdf Evenson, Norma (1979). ​Paris: A Century of Change, 1878-1978.​ Westford, Massachusetts: Yale University Press.

Hussey, Andrew (2006). ​Paris, The Secret History​. London: Penguin Group.

Livius (February, 2011). ​Lutetia​. Retrieved from http://www.romeacrosseurope.com/?p=525#sthash.Ba4ryjCf.vnHYCkaO.dpbs Norris, Shawn (2012). ​Paris … a Modern City Built by Romans.​ Retrieved from http://www.romeacrosseurope.com/?p=525#sthash.Ba4ryjCf.vnHYCkaO.dpbs Pravin, Dhanya (28 June 2015). ​Paris - Town Planning.​ Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/dhanyapravin/paris-1-49923962 Saalman, Howard (1971). ​Haussmann: Paris Transformed​. New York: George Braziller, Inc.