MENU: Majesty on a human scale
FRANCE'S 17TH-CENTURY KINGS USED URBAN DESIGN AND MONUMENTS TO EMPHASIZE THEIR GROWING POWER
France's first straight street leads to the 12th-century Basilica of Saint-Denis and royal mausoleum:
Paris's first straight street, built toward 1600, looks back to it. It leads to a statue of a king on horseback:
Rue de Birague (former rue Royale)
The Grand Axis merges with the horizon to symbolize the infinite power of kings (toward 1675):
Claude Abron
Those innovations stem from a uniquely powerful monarchy and could not have been born elsewhere.
Yet they go unnoticed.
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