VII. THE OVERLOOKED 13TH, A COMMUNARD BASTION

MENU: 7. 13th: COMMUNARD BASTION

THE CITY'S SOUTHEASTERN FRINGE USED TO BE ITS POOREST AREA...  

Adapted from a Google map

In the east where prevailing winds blow pollution and on an outskirt where land was inexpensive, the 13th was next to the river and a railroad and became one of the most industrialized areas in France. 

Raw capitalism transformed it from an idyllic place to one of misery.

     Evocation toward 1820, anonymous (at today's Auberge Ethchegorry)

 

Paris, 4 place Pinel "Les Chiffonniers" [The Ragmen] by Eugène Atget, toward 1900 / for more photos from the National Library, zoom

The spot now: a statue of a doctor who helped the mentally handicapped, a poster in search of a man who needs urgent help, street art and posters for theater and the left...

Portrait of  Dr. Philippe Pinel (d. 1826), who worked at the Salpetrière hospital five minutes away. 

The little girl was roller skating and posed for this picture.

# # #

This section explores what seems to be gone. The next shows how the area's modern vitality derives from it.  

     Boulevard Auriol 

In brief

• The fight for the hilltop

• An epicenter of misery

• A Third-World revolutionaries' training ground

• A walk through an outskirt that used to be chilling

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Next,

V.I.

The fight for the hilltop

VII.1. THE FIGHT FOR THE HILLTOP

 MENU: 7.1. The fight for the hilltop

BLOODY WEEK'S FIERCEST STRUGGLE

     The Last Day of the Commune, theater poster by Leon Choubrac, 1883 / zoom 

In brief

• Frenzied combat

• Communard fighters

• Conflicting signs and the Communard spirit

• Another panel does mention La Commune but...

*   *   *

Next,

7.1.1. 

Frenzied combat

VII.1.1. FRENZIED COMBAT

THE BUTTE-AUX-CAILLES ("QUAIL HILLTOP"), SITE OF THE REPRESSION'S WORST FIGHTING

Elsewhere Versaillais officers spared unreliable troops, but they could not let Communards control the height that dominates the left bank. Though their forces were six times more numerous, it took four attempts to seize the hill.

-- Lissagary

                                 The Observatory Seen from the Butte aux Cailles by Jean Millet, toward 1710 / zoom

"A perspective to delight 

the most blasé traveller [...]

The Panthéon's magnificent cupula, the drab and melancholy dome of the Val de Grâce, proudly dominate an entire town [...] From there, the proportions of the the two monuments appear gigantic [...] to the left, the Observatory seems a dark and gaunt spectre [...] then, from afar, the Invalides's elegant lantern flames between the Luxembourg's blue masses and the gray towers of Saint-Sulpice [...]" 

-- The Woman of Thirty by Balzac, 1842 

To avoid the barricade that guarded the 13th's entry,* they proceeded under along the Bièvre river's islands:

* The site where the 13th begins is still Les Gobelins (best known as the site of tapestry production since the 17th century).

Zoom (please scroll down)

Then their climb began...

Parc René Le Gall

The park is built on enlarged islands.

...crossed what then was a country road... 

Now boulevard Auguste Blanqui 

It linked the gate at the city's entrance with place d'Italie, site of City Hall and the prison where the monks would soon be killed.

...climbed the hill under heavy fire as the terrified residents heard the screams and gun shots...

           Engraving of the time, gone from the web

...finally taking the hill toward 4 pm. 

      Le jardin Brassai

The thousand surviving Communards 

retired to the right bank in good order, 

where they dispersed to defend their neighborhoods.  

 

*    *    *

Next, 

7.1.2. 

Communard fighters

VII.1.2. COMMUNARD FIGHTERS

THE HILLTOP LOST, GENERAL WALERY WROBLEWSKY REFUSED THE COMMAND OF THE REMAINING TROOPS AND FOUGHT ON AS AN ORDINARY SOLDIER:

        Mosaic outside the seat of Les amis de la Commune

The Polish nobleman exiled for participating in the insurrection of 1863 survived in Paris by lighting street lamps, then as a typographer.

La Commune defeated, he managed to flee to England. With the help of Marx, Engels and Polish refugees he founded a printing establishment and published Lissagary's account. He returned to Paris in 1885 and died there in 1908, deeply admired by the Polish community but extremely poor. 

-- Unsigned article in a publication of Les Amis de la Commune, n° 33, 2008. 

# # #

The legendary 101st battalion: "Rage alone commands those demons," of the 13th or Mouffetard,* "undisciplined, hoarse, with torn clothes and banner, who mutiny if they rest and as soon as

they have been withdrawn from battle, must be plunged into it again."

  -- Lissagary

*Where Hemingway hears Communard memories.

Commander Marie Jean-Baptiste Sérizier wears his cap boldly to the side and looks intensely into the camera as he leans against his sword.  

               Cover photo

            Eléments de l'histoire de la Commune du 13e arrondissement by Gérard Conte, 1989

For his last fight, please click back.

A Communist tanner and militant,

he blustered, drank, beat his wife

and was an extremely brave and effective soldier.

*     *     *

Next,

7.1.3.

Conflicting signs and the Communard spirit

VII.1.4. A PANEL DOES MENTION LA COMMUNE AND THE FIGHTING, BUT...

 

IT CONTAINS ERRORS, MUCH OF THE DATA IS IRRELEVANT AND IT IS HIDDEN AWAY

History of Paris

Communards on the Butte-aux-Cailles

"After the siege of Paris the government that has taken refuge in Versailles tries to restore order * in Paris held by the Commune. The Butte aux Cailles, then sparsely inhabited and whose steep slopes dominate the Bièvre river, is the theater of a bloody battle on May 25. The guards have their headquarters there.  **

*Restore order: a euphemism for taking control. Paris was exceptionally calm (please click and scroll down).

**Their headquarters were the Gobelins manufactory, which barricades surrounded. Using the islands of the Bievre avoided them. 

Their leader, Wroblewski, protects its access by ambushes and light artillery fire.

[...]The Versaillais are pushed back several times, but at the end of the day hold place d'Italie — then place Émile Duval, counselor and Communard general shot in April [irrelevant] — and the hill, while numerous insurgents retreat to the right bank of the Seine.  

# # #

Most of the city's 700 panels are on the street where they are  noticed, but this one is placed inside the passage that leads to the hill. 

You must take the little-used passage to see it.  

Ignorance and irrelevance as elsewhere,

 invisibility added. 

End of this section.

*    *    * 

Next section,

VII.2. 

An epicenter of misery