NOTRE-DAME CATHEDRAL, FROM ETERNITY TO REPRESSION

THE GIANT 1850 ESPLANADE ERASED THE MEDIEVAL NEIGHBORHOOD AND DILUTES THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE*

*As pointed out in Notre-Dame of Paris by Allan Temko, a classic of 1957, but not often said today.

Located between Saint-Michel and City Hall — so at the heart of the military complex — the parvis covers almost two acres.

Zoom

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When houses crowded up to the cathedral's facade... 

Grez computer image

The image shows an open space for a market which was also used for religious performances and for the condemned to ask pardon before execution. But it was small.

Blown up engraving at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital (please see the next page)

The space was enlarged in the 18th century, but remained tiny in comparison with its extent today.

It surged up over daily life to recall eternity, the impression its builders intended:

The new space means seeing the giant edifice from afar. That makes it seems smaller and less imposing, and the reminder of eternity vanishes:

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The official explanation: Eliminate a slum, source of crime and epidemics, and make residents move to a healthier periphery. To be sure, the slum was so notorious that this first novel about Parisian crime starts with a fight there. But poverty was everywhere, except in the wealthy west.

 Les Mystères de Paris ("The Mysteries of Paris") by Eugène Sue,1843, cover by Jules Chéret, 1895 / zoom

In the background, the towers of Notre-Dame

The real reasons:

• Remove the radicalized underclass population.

• Create space for the army to repress Latin Quarter students should they rise again:

Barricade sur la rue Soufflot, June 25 1848 ("Barricade on rue Soufflot, June 25 1848") by Horace Vernet, toward 1850 / zoom

In the background is the Panthéon,

Latin Quarter symbol.

The huge parvis allows massing troops

and bombarding a neighborhood

where opposition was constant. 

And still is.

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Next,
Planning Latin Quarter bombardment has happy results