4 
H ouse and Garden 
PLAN OF EXCAVATIONS IN THE COURT OF THE OLD LOUVRE 
From u Region du Louvre et des Tuileries ”— Berty , Adolphe and Legrande 
which is the leading fea¬ 
ture of medieval history in 
France. Under the Me¬ 
rovingian and Carlovin- 
gian dynasties there was 
no France. The kings of 
Neustria were quite as 
much at home in Soissons 
as in Paris, or better still, 
in their eagle’s nest at 
Laon, which could be so 
easily defended. The 
Capetian house, which 
makes its debut with the 
defense of Paris against 
the Normans by Count 
Eudes, were Frenchmen 
and Parisians, and in their 
long struggle for suprem¬ 
acy over powerful vassals 
and rivals, were much as¬ 
sisted by the beautiful city 
which so easily recovered 
her prosperity and power. 
With the coronation of Hugues Capet in 987 
Paris became France. The nation and the 
city have been almost identical ever since. 
When Philippe-Auguste became king in 
1180, he found a considerable community 
clustered about the lie de la Cite on both 
sides of the river. The old wall which had 
defended Paris against the Normans was no 
longer sufficient. Before leaving for the 
third crusade in 1190, he began a new en¬ 
ceinte (circumvallation) which was finished 
about 1211. The cost was paid partly by 
the people and partly by the king. 
All trace of the enceinte of Philippe-Auguste 
on the north side has been obliterated, but its 
course can be indicated approximately. It 
began at the Porte Saint-Paul with a tower 
which was well known in old Paris as the 
Tour de Billy. It passed near the union of 
the Rue Saint-Antoine with the Rue Fran¬ 
cis Miron, north of Notre-Dame des Blancs- 
Manteaux, through the site of the Hotel Sou- 
bise, across the Rue Saint-Denis near the 
Rue Etienne Marcel, several hundred feet 
north of the Church of Saint-Eustache, near 
or through the site of the Oratoire, through 
the court of the Louvre to the river near the- 
Pont-des-Arts, where was another fortified 
tower. Its course on the southern side is 
quite clear. The moat, fosse , without the 
wall, was early replaced by streets, which, 
with some changes, especially about the in¬ 
tersection of the Rue Soufflot with the Boule¬ 
vard Saint-Michel, still remain. Beginning 
with the river, the line includes the Rues des 
Fosses Saint-Bernard, du Cardinal Lemoine, 
Thouin, de l’Estrapade, des Fosses Saint- 
Jacques, Malebranche, Monsieur le Prince, 
de l’Ancienne Comedie and Mazarine. Re¬ 
mains of the wall have been found at a short 
distance from the lines of these streets through¬ 
out the circuit, and its design and construc¬ 
tion are well understood. There was a tower 
at the eastern termination of the wall called 
the Tourelle, and at the western termination 
was the famous Tour de Hamelin, afterwards 
named Tour de Nesle. The 'Four de Nesle, 
or, more correctly, the adjoining buildings, 
Hotel de Nesle and Petit-Nesle, played a 
prodigious role in the history of Paris after 
the reign of Philippe le Bel (1289-1314). 
Louis Levan built the Institut precisely on 
the site of these buildings. 
The Chateau du Louvre was an important 
factor in this scheme of fortification. Al¬ 
though there are many conjectures, the deri¬ 
vation of the name is not known. It is quite 
possible that the army of Clovis, which was 
*35 
