MENU: 4.4. A Communard bastion transformed
THE 13TH, ONCE THE CITY'S POOREST DISTRICT
That past explains the bland exterior and the vitality that lies beneath it.
- Proximity to the river, cheap land on the city's outskirt and a railroad station that kept the working class away from the center made the area one of the most highly industrialized sites in France, and the site of one of its greatest concentrations of slums:
Paris, 4 place Pinel "The Ragmen" by Eugène Atget toward 1900 / for more photos from the National Library, zoom
- Nearby, "matchbox housing" replaces the slum, next to a space where troops could assemble in case of insurrection. A park lies alongside it and a sculpture appears among the trees.
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| Place Souham |
Cheap land also brought high rises that unexpectedly led to Europe's largest Asian neighborhood...
Boulevard Vincent Auriol, minutes from the area's pivot at place d'Italie
- ...and murals that light up bleak walls.
In brief
- Streets where the past is deleted
- An epicenter of misery
- In "demons' " footsteps
- The obscure 13th, home base for a stay?
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