Stones Tell Stories
The Wall of Philippe Auguste
Rue Charlemagne /
Rue des Jardins Saint-Paul
A number of stone walls in Paris signify turning points in the history of the city. We think of these walls as ancient, but they speak to us today...if we pause and listen.
In 1190, King Philippe Auguste decreed that a protective wall be constructed around Paris. Today, the most notable vestige of this wall is found along rue Charlemagne in the Marais, 4th Arrondissement. The wall runs a full block along Rue des Jardins Saint-Paul, where students in a sunny playground bounce soccer balls off it. This stone wall, perhaps more than any other marker, tells a defining story—in fact a variety of stories—of the growth and urbanization of Paris.
These stones tell a geological story.
The wall was constructed with both dressed stones and rubble stones. If you look closely at the exposed face of the rubble stones, and you see crustacean fossils. An ocean, filled with crustaceans, once covered the region where Paris lies. As waters receded and the crustaceans decomposed, they helped to form the white limestone that eons later would be called “Paris stone.” The stone lies in abundance beneath Paris, and it was quarried to build the walls, bridges, cathedrals, schools and homes of the city. Today, the mining tunnels, long defunct, are known as the Catacombs, and they can be visited via a portal at Denfert Rochereau in the 14th.
These stones tell an economic story.
The wall of Philippe Auguste had several purposes: to keep out threats from marauders, and to keep in a growing economy, controlled by construction and crafts guilds. When completed in 1215, it ran 2,800 meters on the right bank, 2,600 meters on the left bank and enclosed 272 hectares of housing, fields and vineyards.. Every 70 meters was a tower 9 meters tall and 3 meters thick at the base. That totaled 40 towers on the right bank, 31 on the Left Bank.Twelve portals were created to control people coming in and out of the city. Four towers protected the city where the Seine intersects it, with chains extended across the water.
Basically, in the Paris defined by Philippe Auguste’s wall, the haves were sealed within; the have-nots were locked out. Specifically, the non-guild builders and tradesmen were left on the outside, and there they fashioned suburbs that evolved without plan. The rapid growth pf Paris from this point forward was driven by migration from country to city. Whether these peasants cum nouveau Parisians ended up inside or outside the wall, they kept coming.
This particular portion of the wall is cut off sharply on rue Charlemagne. Stand on one side of the wall, then move five feet to the other side. Then, consider how different your life and your options in the 13th century would have been, depending on where you stood in relation to this simple stack of stones.
The stones tell a real estate story.
Philippe Auguste expressed a vision for his walled Paris: “Build out to the ramparts with houses,” he commanded. Thus began the transformation of Paris into a rental city, where various classes were stacked vertically. Arriving peasants, who had escaped from the dreaded seigneurial system of the countryside, effectively reentered indenture in a new role as the urban poor. With little or no money, they were obliged to work for building owners in exchange for food and lodging. This rigid arrangement could last generations.
Historians credit the wall and the security it provided with the development of cohesive neighborhoods, as well as communication between neighborhoods, within the city. That growing city, by the 12th and 13th centuries had been defined in three parts: La Cité (Ile de la Cité), la Ville (Right Bank) and l’Université (Left Bank).
Walls increased the verticality and density of Paris, with classes stacked one atop another.
The stones tell a demographic story.
Over the Medieval and Renaissance ages, France’s population grew exponentially as agriculture prospered in what we now know was a warm period in France’s climate (rings in the charred timbers from the Notre Dame fire confirm it). Vast forests were cleared for fields, but still the swelling rural population raced ahead of viable farmland, forcing peasants to migrate to the city for economic opportunity. These new Parisians encountered a finite urban geography restricted by the wall and its consequences: accelerated densification and verticality.
The broad spread of homes envisioned by Philippe Auguste rose higher—with stone construction replacing wood—and social classes were housed in vertical order. The ground floor (rez de chasseur) served as a workshop, often with a retail window. This was generally the property of the owner/merchant who lived one floor up (called the premier étage or first floor); the second and third floors housed bourgeois families, while the working poor and servants climbed stairs to the cramped quarters on the upper floors and garret (attic).
The nobility lived differently. Beginning in the 16th century, nobles also migrated from country estates in the city. They built grandiose private homes with turrets and courtyards in the neighborhoods of the Marais, St. Honoré and Saint Germain. These palatial homes, called hotels particuliers were built of stone, and many stand today, preserved and converted to museums, shops and offices.
Hôtels Particuliers
Beginning in the 16th century, nobles migrated from country estates into the city. However, they lived differently from other classes. They built grandiose private homes with turrets and statuary in the neighborhoods of the Marais, St. Honoré and Saint Germain.
These palatial homes, called hôtels particuliers, were built of stone and featured inner courtyards and gardens. Many stand today, preserved and converted to museums, shops and offices.
Beginning in the 16th Century, nobles built immense private homes in Paris.
The parameters of Paris were defined by a series of walls that increased the city's density and shaped much of the character of its many neighborhoods.
Four Later Walls
The wall of Philippe Auguste was a useful if constricting element in the development of Paris. Over the ensuing centuries, four more, larger walls were constructed around Paris with similar purpose: to keep in and keep out.
Wall of Built Enclosed
Charles V 1356-1383 Marais, Templar
Louis XIII 1633-1636 Western Right Bank
Farmers 1784-1791 Austerlitz
Thiers 1841-1846 Boulevard de Maréchaux
With each new wall came annexation of former faubourgs (suburbs) into Paris proper, swelling the urban population along with its expanded land mass.
The stones tell a story of monarchy.
In addition to building the wall, Philippe Auguste also began a transformation of the Louvre, from a fort at the distant edge of the city into a royal residence. The wall met the fort and fused it within the city. Later walls rendered the Louvre central. Enormous foundations of the Medieval Louvre castle were uncovered in a modern day excavation and can be visited in the Louvre basement today.
The stones tell a transportation story.
The development of Paris has a push-pull relationship with walls. Walls were constructed to guard against threats—then deconstructed when deemed overly restrictive. From 1670-1674, Louis XIV commanded the demolition of all walls—to be replaced by the Grands Boulevards.
The stones tell an urbanist story.
The courses where the walls had cut through countryside and rendered cityscape, later became pathways for the grands boulevards. The word rampart, linguists tell us, is at the root of boulevard. Some of the walls supported wagon travel atop them. Well into the 20th century, the issue of wall demolition was hotly debated. The spaces where remaining walls stood were envisioned as precious open spaces. If they were to come down and the space developed, at least let the newly available space be allocated for habitation a bon marché, affordable housing.
Tax Farmers
The stones tell a tax story.
The “farmers” in the Fermé General wall indicated “tax farmers” who collected duties at a number of gates where goods were brought in and out of the city. A wonderfully preserved gate is the Rotonde that stands in Parc Monceau. Despite the regal design of this portal, its purpose was despised by country purveyors who paid taxes there and by Parisians who, as a result, paid more for goods.
Walls defined not only the parameters of Paris, but they influenced the character of the city and its myriad neighborhoods.
"The Walls Keep Paris Murmuring"
Le mur murant Paris rend Paris murmurant.
The wall walling Paris keeps Paris murmuring.
Further, a poem of ironic protest:
Pour augmenter son numéraire
To increase its cash
Et raccourcir notre horizon
and to shorten our horizon
La Fermé a jugé nécessaire
the Farmers judge it necessary
De mettre Paris en prison
to put Paris in prison
Former tax collection station, Parc Monceau
Resources
Atlas de Pais au Moyen Age:
Espace Urbain, Habitat, Societé, Religion, Lieux de Pouvoir (2006)
by Philippe Lorentz and Dany Sandron Jacues Lebar, photographs Benedicte Loisel, cartography
Atlas de Paris: Evolution d’un Paysage Urbain (1999)
by Danielle Chadych and Dominique Leborgne
Pleasures of the text, la Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris