IV.1.5. THE ROYAL IMPRINT BLOSSOMS

MENU: 4.1.5. The royal imprint blossoms

A CITY THAT RENDERS HOMAGE TO KINGS  

The arch at Saint-Denis gate honors Louis XIV (built in 1674).

Look at the outline

of streets and "places"*

*The large urban spaces have specific meaning in France.

• Straight streets and monarchy

• Napoleon's tomb: Three straight streets that lead to a sepulchre. Whose?

• Royal "places" multiply
  

• At the last royal "place", change begins

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Next,

Straight streets and monarchy

STRAIGHT STREETS AND MONARCHY

AT MONARCHY'S HEIGHT, ALL STRAIGHT STREETS LEAD TO SYMBOLS OF ROYALTY

(TOWARD 1600-1750)  

They are:  

• Those that lead to royal places, at the center of which is an equestrian statue of the reigning king (place Dauphine excepted because of its particular terrain and meaning). 

The model of place des Vosges

• The arch at Saint-Martin gate

Gone from Internet

A straight street zooms towards it from a fairground (where the Eastern Station is now).

• At Versailles and the Invalides, which was meant as Louis XIV's mausoleum, three straight streets converge: The next page explains. 

• A final expression of the Old Regime: The wide, straight street at a new toll gate that is called place du Trône* [Throne] to recall Louis XIV's royal entry, which took shape and began there. 

 * Now place de la Nation

For more information / zoom

It was built in 1787. The Revolution breaks out in 1789...

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There are no exceptions. Even the church of Saint-Paul Saint-Louis, which glorifies but does not symbolize monarchy, is off-center — the street that leads to it curves:

# # #

Toward 1750, there's a change:

  

Straight streets lead to a church (the Panthéon, 1758), and a theater (the Odéon, 1779).

Royalty weakens. 

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Next,
Napoleon's tomb:

Three straight streets lead to a sepulcher. Whose?

NAPOLEON'S TOMB: THREE STRAIGHT STREETS LEAD TO A SEPULCHRE. WHOSE?

"NAPOLEON'S TOMB" WAS NEVER MEANT FOR HIM: LOUIS XIV PLANNED THE TOWERING MAUSOLEUM, WHICH IS NOW THE ARMY MUSEUM, FOR HIMSELF 

But that's not what's said.

              Louis XIV visite les Invalides by Pierre-Denis Martin, 1706 / zoom 

# # #

When houses were low the dome overlooked the town and the complex still extends over a large part of the left bank:

         Place Louis XVI (Place de la Concorde) en 1829 by Giuseppe Canella, 1829 / zoom 

                L'Hôtel des Invalides au couché du soleil © Frédéric Reglain / zoom

#  #  #

Louis called the whole "Les Invalides" because wounded veterans 

were cared for there (some still are). The name evokes a kindly king concerned for his troops:

Louis visite les vétérans by Maurice Leloir, 1931

 

"In 1670, King Louis XIV Founded the Invalides 
to Lodge and Care for Veterans of his Wars." 

"Invalides to Invalides"

 

 

# # #

But how can succor to soldiers explain the remarkable site, when there are no allusions to them — and all elements lead to the dome?

• Two series of convergent lines highlight the whole. Those that emphasize the dome are built first:

-- Pascal Payen-Appenzeller, historian of Paris

Internet, no source given

An aerial view / zoom

• The only other example of converging lines is at Versailles:

      Versailles en 1668 by Pierre Patel / zoom

• The dome overlooks a void that takes at least 20 minutes to cross:

      Red arrows show walks, yellow arrows sites /zoom.

Claude Abron

This photo stops at the portal, with the flag (look very carefully).

 

• In the whole complex, the only image is this one of Louis on horseback:  
  

• It leads to a courtyard so vast that one hardly sees the cannons or church entry:  

• Then one passes through a five-minute corridor of bare wall.

# # #

One finally reaches the dome, which hovers over a tomb...

Claude Abron

But it's Napoleon's.

# # #

Louis's final wars lasted a generation (from 1688 to 1713, with a five-year gap). He had to melt down his superb silverware. Masses of nobles and soldiers were killed. Rural people died of cold and hunger.  

• This woman of the nobility, Marguerite de Choiseul (1647-1737), lost two sons in a single battle (the Battle of Turin) and "a third through the war indirectly,"* all in 1706:

*Official statement sent by the current owner of Madame de Choiseul's chateau.

 

• Taxes fell mainly on peasants — except for soldiers, who were often enrolled by force, or joined to escape starvation. "Famine, which desolated the countryside, was a ressource for war: those who had no bread became soldiers. Many lands lay fallow; but there was an army."  

--  Le Siècle de Louis XIV by Voltaire, ed. 2015, p. 358

• War made the once-in-a-century cold of 1709* still more terrible. 

*The wine in the king's glass froze.

Misère paysanne, "Histoire de France" by François Guizot, 1875

Louis's wars made him so hated that a Parisian mausoleum was unthinkable, and his remains were taken to the royal necropolis at Saint-Denis (in 1715): "I saw small tents set up along the route to de Saint-Denis. There was drinking, singing, laughing." 

-- Voltaire, note p. 474

Like the chateau of the Sleeping Beauty, the tomb remained empty for a hundred years.

(In fact longer, until 1836)

# # #

Every aspect of the colossal site concerns Louis XIV and nothing refers to veterans. So why are they emphasized and he left out? 

The direct reason is simple: the Invalides, now the Army Museum, extols French military glory and noticing the king's absence would underscore its human cost.

Harder to explain: 

Neither the historians I have read

nor the guides whose talks I have heard

mention Louis's absence.

Listeners say nothing.

*    *    *

Next,
Royal "places" multiply

ROYAL "PLACES" MULTIPLY

PARIS HAS FIVE:* THEY FOLLOW THE MODEL OF PLACE DES VOSGES, WITH AT THEIR CENTER AN EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF THE REIGNING KING** 

*Place des Vosges and place Dauphine (toward 1600), place des Victoires and place Vendôme (toward 1685), place de la Concorde (1755).

**The place Dauphine statue is on a bridge.

 

       Claude Abron

 At place des Victoires, the model is taken up exactly.

Diaporama, Louvre

At place Vendôme, the statue looks out over the buildings: no one is above the king.  

Place de Concorde is described on the next page.

In the provinces the Revolution cancels construction plans,

but some have been built already:

Bordeaux 

Rennes

Reims: exceptionally, the king stands.

Abroad, 18th-century capitals take up the Parisian model

Nancy in 1751, when Lorraine is still independent.

Internet, photographer unknown

Copenhagen

          Palace Square by Vasily Sadovnikov, toward 1847 / zoom

Saint-Petersburg

 Adopting places was due to France's influence —

"He spoke the refined French in which our grandfathers

 not only spoke but thought..."*

-- Page 1 of War and Peace

*Conspirators spoke French when they told Tsar Paul I that he was an intolerable despot and was overthrown. Then they killed him.

-- The Romanovs, 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore, 2016 (French ed. p.350).

*     *     * 

Next,

At the last royal "place", change begins

AT THE LAST ROYAL "PLACE," CHANGE BEGINS

THE PLACE CONCORDE POWER SYMBOL CHANGES WITH THE REVOLUTION

The site's design follows that of place des Vosges (adapted to the river bank):

Place Louis XV vers 1775 vue de la rive gauche attributed to Alexandre-Joël Noel / zoom

During the Revolution the statue is melted down for cannons, as in the other royal places.

     L'Inauguration de Louis XV, 1763; The central figure is the Governor of Paris / zoom

Victor Hugo says that an arm outstretched in command of the statue was the only element that stayed intact when it was toppled. When the Bastille was taken it was given a prisoner, whom that king had left there 40 years before. Since there is no outstretched arm, that must be a legend, but legends reflect how people feel.

-- Ninety-three by Victor Hugo, ed.1979, p. 153 

The guillotine replaces it for the execution of Louis XVI, for its symbol and because it alone is large enough to hold the crowd (it was the largest urban space in Europe):

       L'Exécution de Louis XVI by Geog Heirich Sieveking / zoom 

,

On the morning of January 21, 1793, 

 the streets are silent...

Shops shut, shutters closed. Soldiers surround place de la Concorde, with thousands of hushed Parisians behind them. 

A drum roll drowns out the king's last words.  

When Parisians tire of the bloodshed the guillotine is moved outside town and a statue of Liberty replaces it (in 1794):

*Far to the east, to what is now place de la République: for one of its dramas, please click and scroll down. 

Place de la Concorde et la Statue de la Liberté, attributed to François-Frédéric Lamot, between 1795 and 1799 / zoom

 Robespierre precipitates his fate

He and allies dine separately from a group they menace at a nearby restaurant (Ledoyen, which is still there), then all meet under the statue. His statement regarding future executions convinces his opponents that they will be next: They overthrow and guillotine him two days later. 

-- The dinner and conversation, Le sept Thérmidor 

in "Notre-Dame de Thérmidor" by Arsène Houssaye, 1867 (in French)

Napoleon demolishes the statue when he becomes Emperor (in 1804). The restored monarchy plans a statue of Louis XVI, waits 11 years to lay the first stone of its base... and does nothing more.

Place Louis XVI à la Restauration  / gone from the web

For almost 40 years the "place" is empty.

End of this section. 

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Next section,
IV.1.5.
The curtain falls