4.3. A DESIGN IMPOSSIBLE ELSEWHERE

 

MENU: 4.3. DESIGN IMPOSSIBLE ELSEWHRE

BY LINKING THE LOUVRE PALACE WITH THE HORIZON THE "GRAND AXIS" PROCLAIMS INFINITE ROYAL POWER, A DESIGN THAT LATER CAPITALS WILL COPY 

Demolishing the rampart allows extending a line that has existed since earliest times, that of the east-west trade route.

     Zoom

Paris toward the year 1000 and the earliest trade route.

The Grand Axis seen from the Tuileries gardens / zoom

   Lithograph of 1855, cover, The Grand Hours of the Champs-Elysées, 1855, by Marc Gaillard (Martelle Editions), n.d.

Claude Abron

To grasp its length, view its start 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. 

• A project of Henri IV?

Tearing down the rampart allowed...

• Easy access to the court at Versailles.

• The "Grand Boulevards" and the garment center.

• The arcs at the Saint-Denis and Saint-Martin gates. 

The arc at the Saint-Denis gate is

 a key to Europe's past.

*     *     *

In brief 

• Louis XIV's victories lead to razing the rampart

• An arc that highlights kingship

• Parisian effects of demolishing the ramparts: "Les Boulevards" and "Le Sentier"

• European effects: an announcement of French hegemony

• An arc launches a nationalist story

• Long-term effects of "The Passing of the Rhine"

• Now the arcs hover like ghosts over the traffic

*    *    *

Next,

4.3.1.

Louis XIV's victories lead to razing the rampart