IV.1.3. A DESIGN INCONCEIVABLE ELSEWHERE

 

MENU: 4.1.3. Design inconceivable elsewhere

THE "GRAND AXIS" PROCLAIMS INFINITE ROYAL POWER BY LINKING THE LOUVRE PALACE WITH THE HORIZON 

For how it the east-west trade route, please click.

Demolishing the rampart permits it.

   Lithograph of 1855, cover, Les Belles Heures des Champs-Elysées, 1855, by Marc Gaillard (Martelle Editions), n.d.

The Grand Axis seen from the Tuileries gardens / zoom

One needs a helicopter to see it.

Claude Abron

To partially grasp its length, view the Louvre palace from the other side of the river. 

Origins:

• The space that leads to the royal tombs. 

• The first straight street and first point of focus. 

• The innovations of Henri IV? (Please scroll down the page.)

Accounts often ignore a design seen only from above.

Yet eliminating the rampart facilitated Louis's transfer to Versailles, permanently changed northern Paris and allowed building the arc at the Saint-Denis gate, which is a key to Europe's past.

And future capitals adopting it makes its impact planetary.

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In brief 

• Louis XIV's victories lead him to tear down the rampart...

• The larger arc underscores kingship

• The demolition's effect on Paris: "Les Boulevards" and "Le Sentier"

• Its effect on Europe: an announcement of French hegemony

• Porte Saint-Denis heralds three centuries of calamity

• The arcs hover like ghosts over the traffic

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Louis XIV's victories lead him to tear down the rampart...