IV.1.3. A DESIGN INCONCEIVABLE ELSEWHERE

 

MENU: 4.1.3. Design inconceivable elsewhere

THE "GRAND AXIS" PROCLAIMS INFINITE ROYAL POWER

It links the Louvre palace to the horizon, a layout that demolishing the rampart permits. One needs a helicopter to see it.

Claude Abron

The Grand Axis seen from the Tuileries gardens / zoom

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

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.)

In brief 

• Louis XIV's victories lead to demolishing 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

Most accounts ignore a design seen only from above, yet other capitals adapting it makes its impact planetary.

Eliminating the rampart also

facilitated Louis's transfer to Versailles,

permanently changed northern Paris,

and the arc at the Saint-Denis gate

 is a key to Europe's past.

 

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Louis XIV's victories lead to demolishing the rampart...