DEMOLISHING THE CITY WALL ANNOUNCED HEGEMONY

 

YOUNG LOUIS XIV'S VICTORIES LED HIM TO DEMOLISH THE RAMPART 

(VICTORIES 1672, RAMPART DEMOLISHED 1674)

The protective walls were universal:  

The Second Fall of Constantinople, by Tintoretto, towards 1600 / zoom

Constantinople 

Rome

  By Apollinary Vasnetsov, 1922 / zoom

Moscow toward 1350

Du Niger au golfe de Guinée by Louis Gustave Binger, 1892 / zoom

Sikasso (Mali), end 19th century

View of Vienna from Josephat, official commission, 1690 / zoom

   Getty Images/Vernon Lewis Gallery / Stocktrek Images

New Orleans in 1812

 Anonymous engraving / zoom

Marrakech toward 1840

 Destroying the ramparts meant that 

attacking Paris was unthinkable,

trumpeting French domination.

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The Boulevards that replaced it gave access to Versailles