DEMOLISHING THE CITY WALL ANNOUNCED HEGEMONY

 

YOUNG LOUIS XIV'S VICTORIES LED HIM TO DEMOLISH THE RAMPART AND BUILD AN ARC OF TRIUMPH ON THE SITE OF ITS MOST SYMBOLICALLY IMPORTANT GATE 

(VICTORIES 1672, DESTRUCTION OF RAMPART AND BUILDING OF ARC, 1674)

The protective walls were universal:  

The Second Fall of Constantinople, by Tintoretto, towards 1600 / zoom

Constantinople 

Rome

  By Apollinary Vasnetsov, 1922 / zoom

Moscow toward 1350

From the Niger to the Gulf of Guinée by Louis Gustave Binger, 1892 / zoom

Sikasso (Mali), end 19th century

View of Vienna from Josephat, official commission, 1690 / zoom

   Getty Images/Vernon Lewis Gallery / Stocktrek Images

New Orleans in 1812

 Anonymous engraving / zoom

Marrakech toward 1840

 Destroying the ramparts meant that 

attacking Paris was unthinkable,

trumpeting French domination.

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The Boulevards that replaced it gave access to Versailles