The Topographical Evolution of the City of Paris 
II. , but not finished until the next century. 
Charles IX. (1560-1574) improved the 
old Place de Greve a little. Under Henry 
III. (1574—1589) all effort collapsed. This 
rascally king robbed the municipal strong¬ 
box and rendered the city bankrupt. The 
Valois promised much for Paris, but did ex¬ 
tremely little. 
Henry IV. (1589-1610), “bon bour¬ 
geois,’’ the first Bourbon, loved Paris better 
than his religion. In 1590 he restored to 
the city the “ amendes et confiscations ” due 
to the crown, and work on the Hotel de 
Ville was actively recommenced in 1606. 
About 1608 the famous statue of the king by 
Biard, in pierre de Tonnerre against a 
background of black marble, was erected 
over the door of the Hotel de Ville. It 
was destroyed in the Revolution. 
The Hotel de Ville was finished in 1628, 
in the reign of Louis XIII. The irregular 
lot on which it stood, between the property 
of the church of Saint-Jean and that of the 
Hopital du Saint-Esprit, forced its archi¬ 
tects to build their fine court in the form of 
a truncated triangle or trapezoid. 
Although somewhat improved, the condi¬ 
tion of the Place de Greve during this period 
was still thoroughly medieval. It was an 
immense port full of nondescript structures 
and merchandise. Moreover, it was a favorite 
place for executions, which were conducted 
with a frenzy of cruelty so inconceivably ter¬ 
rible as to seem to us grotesque. In this, 
however, Paris was no worse than the free 
city of Nuremberg and many others at this 
time. 
Minor changes were made in the Hotel 
de Ville from time to time. In 1749 it was 
proposed to build another on the northern 
side of the square; Napoleon wished to 
have extensive enlargements made ; but the 
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