PARIS 



763 



that famous prison and fortress ; the Place Royale, 

 with its two fountains and a statue of Louis XIII. ; 

 the Place de THotel de Ville, formerly Place de la 

 Greve, for many ages the scene of public execu- 

 tions. Triumphal arches are a feature in the archi- 

 tecture of Paris. The Porte St Martin and Porte 

 St Denis were erected hy Louis XIV. to commem- 

 orate his victories in the Low Countries, and are 

 adorned with bas-reliefs representing events of 

 these campaigns ; the Arc de Triomphe de I'Etoile 

 was l>egun by Napoleon in 1806, and completed in 

 1836 at a cost of more than 400,000. This arch, 

 which bounds the Champs-Elysees, has a total 

 height of 152 feet and a breadth of 137. It is 

 profusely adorned with bas-reliefs and alto-reliefs, 

 some of which, representing the departure and return 

 of the Grande Armee, are masterpieces of sculpture. 

 The great streets which radiate from the Arc de 

 Triomphe were among the most magnificent of 

 those constructed by Napoleon III., and make this 

 monument of the Bonaparte family the most con- 

 spicuous in Paris. A great avenue runs east from 

 it to the Palace of the Louvre, in the heart of the 

 city. 



The Seine in passing through Paris is spanned 

 by twenty-eight bridges. The most celebrated and 

 ancient are the Pont Notre Dame, 

 erected in 1500, and the Pont-Neuf, 

 begun in 1578, completed by Henri 

 IV. in 1604. This bridge, which 

 crosses the Seine at the north of the 

 lle-de-la-Cite, is built on twelve 

 arches, and abuts near the middle 

 on a small peninsula, jutting out 

 into the river, and planted with 

 trees, that form a background to 

 the statue of Henri IV. on horse- 

 back, placed in the central open 

 space on the bridge. The bridges 

 all communicate directly with spaci- 

 ous quays, planted with trees, which 

 line both banks of the Seine, and 

 which, together with the Boule- 

 vards, give special characteristic 

 beauty to the city. During the 

 last two centuries of the 'ancien 

 regime' the Pont-Neuf was the 

 centre of Paris. It was a meeting- 

 place of showmen and charlatans, 

 and there popular orators addressed 

 the mob. Early in the 12th century 

 Ogival or Gothic architecture took 

 its rise in Paris, or the district im- 

 mediately surrounding it, this event 

 being one of the most memorable in 

 the history of art. Unfortunately 

 the Parisians, with an impatience of everything 

 not in the latest fashion, long neglected their old 

 buildings in the style they had originated. Their 

 Gothic churches were disfigured by incongruous ad- 

 ditions and tawdry ornaments, which make them 

 uninteresting if not repulsive to visitors. This 

 remark, however, does not apply to the first two 

 churches we shall mention. They have been ad- 

 mirably restored, and it is now difficult to say 

 whether their incomparable beauty is to be more 

 attributed to mediteval builders or to the modern 

 architects by whom they have been renovated. 



Among the parish churches of Paris ( upwards of 

 sixty in number) the grandest and most interest- 

 ing, from a historical point of view, is the cathedral 

 of Notre Dame, which stands on a site successively 

 occupied by a pagan temple and a Christian basilica 

 of the time of the Merovingian kings. The main 

 building, begun in the 12th century, is 400 feet 

 long, 150 feet wide, and 110 high. The height of 

 two towers is 218 feet, that of the Heche 300 feet. 

 The interior consists of a principal and two flanking 



naves, which are continued round the choir. It 

 has been said that if the pillars of Notre Dame 

 could speak they might tell the whole history of 

 France. The kings, however, were crowned at 

 Rheims, and the only royal coronation celebrated 

 at Notre Dame was that of Henry VI. of Eng- 

 land in 1431. There, too, was sung in 1436 a 

 memorable Te Deum when Paris was retaken by 

 the troops of Charles VII. During the French 

 Revolution the church was mutilated in order to 

 destroy what were supposed erroneously to be 

 emblems of royalty. In 1793, after childish and 

 repulsive mockeries of the ceremonies of the Roman 

 Catholic Church, it was converted into a 'temple 

 of reason.' In 1804 Napoleon I. at the height of his 

 power resolved to impress Europe by an imposing 

 ceremony that of his coronation in Notre Dame ; 

 and there it was that he, in presence of the pope, 

 who never before had crossed the Alps at the bid- 

 ding of king or emperor, rudely placed the crown 

 upon his own head. In 1831 the novel of Victor 

 Hugo, Notre Dame, made the church interesting 

 to all Europe. In France there was a general 

 desire for its restoration, and in 1845 this great 

 work was undertaken by the state. Viollet-le-Duc 

 added to the building the great Heche, a structure 



Notre Dame : from the River. 



of oak and lead ; and under the care of some of 

 the ablest architects of France the church was 

 converted into what is now described in Paris as 

 the noblest of Gothic buildings. The Sainte 

 Chapelle, built by St Louis in 1245-48, for the 

 reception of the various relics which he had brought 

 from the Holy Land, is perhaps the greatest 

 existing masterpiece of Gothic art. Restored by 

 Napoleon III. at a cost of 50,000, it was 

 threatened by the Commune, but saved. One of 

 the most interesting churches in Paris is St 

 Severin, buried in narrow streets of the Quartier 

 Latin. A large part of it is in the English 

 Gothic of the 15th century, showing that it 

 was erected during the English occupation of 

 Paris. St-Germain-des-Pres, which is probably 

 the most ancient church in Paris, was completed 

 in 1163; St Etienne du Mont and St Germain 

 1'Auxerrois, both ancient, are interesting the 

 former for its picturesque and quaint decorations, 

 and for containing the tomb of St Genevieve (q.v.), 

 the patron saint of Paris; and the latter for it!" 



