NOTRE-DAME CATHEDRAL, FROM ETERNITY TO REPRESSION

THE GIANT HAUSSMANIAN ESPLANADE ERASED THE MEDIEVAL NEIGHBORHOOD AND DILUTES THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE

Located between Saint-Michel and City Hall — so at the heart of the military complex — the parvis covers almost two acres, and building it was part of the transformation's first tranche.

(In 1853-1855)

Zoom

# # #

Houses had crowded up to the cathedral's facade...

Grez computer image

Originally there was an open space for a market, 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.

 ...so that it surged up over daily life to recall eternity, the impression its builders intended:

  

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

# # #

The official explanation — eliminate a slum, source of crime and epidemics, and make residents move to a healthier periphery:

 The Mysteries of Paris by Eugène Sue,1843, cover by Jules Chéret, 1895 / zoom

In the background, the towers of Notre-Dame

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.

The real reasons:

• Remove the turbulent underclass population.

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

Barricade on rue Soufflot, June 25 1848 by Horace Vernet, toward 1850 / zoom

In the background is the Panthéon,

Latin Quarter symbol,

and now within the range of cannons.

*      *      * 

Next,
Planning Latin Quarter bombardment has happy results