ADAPTING ROYAL MAJESTY

THE LONG, WIDE, STRAIGHT STREETS OF THE 17TH CENTURY WITHOUT EXCEPTION LED TO SYMBOLS OF MONARCHY, AND PARIS MUCH OF THE CITY'S GRANDEUR

Their point of departure is the medieval space by which pilgrims left the trade route to reach the royal tombs...

The Saint-Denis Basilica, which harbors the tombs, is at the extremity of that expanse.

It inspired the first straight street (toward 1600)...

That draws the eye to an equestrian statue of the reigning king that dominates the first royal square... 

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Louis XIII

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Place des Vosges (originally place Royale)

And all that came later.

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The city's wide, long, straight streets lead the eye to a monument. The statues, churches, banks and monuments reinforce the regimes of their times, as did the equestrian statues of kings.

• The statue "Homage to the Republic" on place de la République is one example.

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•  The Eiffel Tower is another. 

Both works were built in the 1880's 

and honor the politically conservative republic of the time.

For more perspectives 

that lead to points of focus,

please click.  

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Next,

Beauty whose brutal origin has been forgotten