The Topographical Evolution of the City of Paris 
and churches, held the eastern portion ; and 
the king’s palace (now Palais de Justice) the 
western. 
These great estates have been subdivided 
a thousand times by purchase, exchange and 
lease, but their main lines, as we have sketched 
them, have always been felt in the topograph¬ 
ical development of the city. 
THE MURS d’eNCEINTE 
During the Middle Ages it was impossible 
to secure any degree of culture or civiliza¬ 
tion except behind fortifications. Every 
form of property was walled in. The cus¬ 
tom persists today. The French farmer al¬ 
ways arranges his buildings within a stout 
rectangular wall. The various properties 
which we have mentioned were well pro¬ 
tected. The enclosures were called clos — 
Clos de Lius, Clos des Ar'enes, and many 
others. During the early Middle Ages these 
smaller and semi-private defenses furnished 
nearly all the protection which the city en¬ 
joyed-. 
A simple fortified camp, with a powerful 
garrison, satisfied the military necessities of 
the Roman occupation. In the early part 
of the fifth century (406), when the Frankish 
invasion began, and the dissolution of the 
Roman Empire seemed certain, the Gallo- 
Roman population of Lutece felt the neces¬ 
sity for better protection. A wall about 
three and one-half meters thick was hastily 
thrown up around the lie de la Cite, which 
has reappeared in the excavations. 
It is probable that, in the Roman time, 
the wooden bridge connecting the island 
with the northern mainland, the Grand- 
Font, was situated near the site of the Pont 
Notre-Dame. When the Grand-Pont re¬ 
appears in medieval history, however, it is 
near the site of the Pont-au-Change. The 
Petit-Pont has always been on the same site. 
The Grand-Pont was 
protected on the north¬ 
ern approach by a wood¬ 
en tower, which later de¬ 
veloped into the Grand- 
Chatelet, and the Petit- 
Pont by another wooden 
tower, which became the 
Petit-Chatelet of history. 
This was the situation 
when the Normans be¬ 
sieged Paris in 885. They 
ravaged the country on 
both sides of the river, 
and assaulted the bridges, 
but did not succeed in 
securing a foothold on 
the island. It is possible 
also that early medieval 
barbarism had so far de¬ 
pleted the population of 
the fine Gallo-Roman 
city that it could easily be 
contained by the He de 
la Cite. 
After the retirement of 
the Normans Paris grad¬ 
ually recovered her cour¬ 
age and prosperity, and 
became more and more 
identified with the move¬ 
ment toward nationalism, 
PLAN OF THE OLD CHATEAU DU LOUVRE, GIVING ITS RELATION 
TO THE MODERN BUILDINGS 
From “ Region du Louvre et des Tuileries ”— Berty , Adolphe and Legrande 
134 
