II.3. A TRADE ROUTE FOR PILGRIMS AND KINGS (rue Saint-Denis)

MENU: 2.3. A trade route for pilgrims & kings 

"WE ARE NOT MAKERS OF HISTORY. WE ARE MADE BY IT"

-- Martin Luther King

Relics of the region's most important Christian martyr transformed the secondary route into one of Europe's great arteries, and made the church that harbored them the royal mausoleum.  

(Relics 3rd century, mausoleum 6th century)

                             Plan of Paris, toward 1640, zoom

Today, each segment of that very long street shows how the past impacts the present.

                          Adapted from a Google map

The red arrow shows rue Saint-Denis and our route on this and the next pages.

How the past determines rue Saint-Denis

• Medieval spirits linger

• The street that asserted royal power

• Erasing rebel neighborhoods

• A hinterland for criminals, nobles and the garment district 

• Louis's arc looms over the route

• Toward the horizon

• Immigrants energize tradition

*    *    *

Next,

II.3.1.

Medieval spirits linger