THE GIANT 1850'S PARVIS ERASED THE MEDIEVAL NEIGHBORHOOD AND DILUTES THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE*
*As pointed out in Allan Temko's classic study, Notre-Dame of Paris, 1957.
Located between Saint-Michel and City Hall — so at the heart of the military complex — the void of almost two acres was among the first of the transformations.
Claude Abron
Planting foliage around its edges improves it appearance — and camouflages a space built for massing troops.
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Sixteenth century / zoom
Gargantua takes refuge on towers of Notre-Dame by Rabelais
Blown up engraving at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital
Enlarged in the 18th century, it remained tiny in comparison with its extent today.
The church surged up over daily life to recall eternity, an impression that the esplanade destroyed:
The official explanation: Eliminate a slum, source of crime and epidemics
- It was so notorious that the first novel about Parisian crime starts with a murder there.
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- But poverty was everywhere, except in the wealthy west and since the cholera epidemic of 1832 began in another neighborhood and the death rate in this one was not the highest, the area was probably not worse than others.
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, 25 juin 1848 by Horace Vernet, toward 1850 / zoom
In the background is the Panthéon, symbol of the turbulent Latin Quarter, which the esplanade's transformation opened to bombardment.
Christmas card:
That past is obliterated now
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