October 2010

BASTILLE CENTRE POMPIDOU

THE PLACE OF THE BASTILLE

Place de la Bastille was named after the fortress de la Bastille, which occupied the fourteenth to the eighteenth century its western end. Pavers inlaid on the floor allow the curious to know its exact location.

Bastille, or Bastille Saint-Antoine, was a fortified building whose foundation stone was laid in 1370. Originally, it was only by a door from the wall of Charles V, flanked by two towers. Over time, it becomes a massive building along 68 meters wide, 37 and top 24. It is an arsenal, protected by cannons placed on the terrace. From 1670, the Bastille loses its defensive function but remains a prison.

In 1789, the Bastille contained only seven prisoners. On 14 July, the revolutionaries marched on the Bastille in possession of some 32,000 rifles they seized the Invalides. They massacred the garrison and prison. From July 15, the entrepreneur Pierre-François Palloy mobilizes a team of 700 workers to demolish the Bastille, without having received any official permission, the construction will last until April 1791. Palloy recycled materials up to the fortress, sells a lot for the construction of buildings in Paris and manufactures a range of products: metal keys, the lines, boxes, medals, paperweights, seals etc ....

The storming of the Bastille

The French Revolution - It is a revolution

In 1792 there are plans to erect a memorial building at the site of the former Bastille. We think first of all an obelisk which was engraved with the Declaration of Human Rights. Then a second proposal, a column of Liberty initiative Palloy, does not materialize for lack of funds. In contrast, a fountain there born in 1793 in homage to Nature, personified by a woman who pours water from her breasts.

In 1808, Napoleon decided to erect a bronze fountain in the shape of an elephant. At a height of 24 m. To assess what effect such a fountain, a plaster model is installed before the current Opera and the model deteriorates and is rapidly destroyed in 1846. The fall of Napoleon the cancellation of the project.

Occurs in 1830 a new revolution, which lasts three days. The 27,28 and 29 July, the people of Paris rebelled against the orders of Charles X: What are the Three Glorious Days, which are a thousand deaths among insurgents. The House of Deputies then took the initiative to erect, place de la Bastille, a monument in homage to these victims. This will be the July column we can still admire.

A long rod of 47 m. high, with 5 bronze drums which are superimposed the names of the 504 deaths recorded in letters of gold. On April 28, 1840, the building was opened and the corpses were buried in 1830 in two underground vaults, located beneath the base of the column. Overlooking the column, the Spirit of Liberty statue in bronze gilt top 5 m, the Genie is the right hand "the torch of civilization" and left hand "broken chain of despotism"

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

For more information:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Bastille

http://www.paris-pittoresque.com/rues/5.htm

OPERA BASTILLE

In 1982, President François Mitterrand wants to create a new opera in Paris. The site chosen was the old station of the Bastille which formerly served the suburbs and was decommissioned in 1969, following the commissioning of the RER. 756 projects were presented at an international competition, the winner is Carlos Ott, a Uruguayan-born Canadian architect. The President inaugurates the Opera July 13, 1989 for the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Its facade is transparent, semi-circular shape is inspired by the profile of the column of July, as well as its height, 50 meters as the column. The first program was shown, March 17, 1990, "Les Troyens" by Hector Berlioz, inspired by the poem "The Aeneid" of Virgil

http://www.wat.tv/video/opera-bastille 1swra_2inpn_.html-

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Opera Bastille is a behemoth: 22 000 m² of ground area, 160,000 sq ft total spread over several floors up a vertical scale of 80 m. including 30 m under the street level. To get an idea is more than all of the Louvre museum, however, already vast. The sumptuous 1200 sq ft room that can seat 2703 opera lovers only 5% of the volume of the building. The rest is devoted to the so-called stage devices, an amphitheater of 700 m² (450 seats) and a studio to 280 sq ft (237 seats). The Bastille Opera took the place of the greatest opera of the world ahead of the Tokyo and Sydney. The immensity of the building due to the meeting in one place, for the first time ever, all the craftsmen needed to carry out an opera: 74 trades are working, the shoemaker to hairdresser the painter in electronics. All designs are developed and stored.

For a virtual tour with commentary

http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/live/onp/L_Opera/Opera_Bastille/visite_virtuelle.php?&lang=fr

Read (Much)
http://www.e-voyageur.com/paris/monument/opera-bastille.htm

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine is the heart historic craft. Artisans and laborers were freed from the Corporations, who exercised control over the various trades until their abolition in 1791. So they escaped from the obligation to present masterpieces for the control and the inspectorates. The first to settle in suburb are shoemakers and textile professionals: cloth workers, tailors and trimmings. Very quickly, the craftsmen and join them. In the seventeenth century, carpenters use a rare essence, ebony, which gives its name to their profession, cabinetmakers. It lists 1,336 craftsmen in the suburb from 1635 to 1716. The progressive refinement of the furniture leads to the appearance of diverse professions: sculptors, spin doctors, varnishing, tabletiers, porcelain, etc. ... Boilermakers.

buildings built along the streets of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine de Charenton, Charonne Lappe and home to the large population living and working under the same roof. Artisanal and industrial courses are furnished, and passages making the junction with the main streets.

Long, long, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine leads to the Place de la Nation. Maintaining a huge working class suburb provides the biggest battalions all popular revolts: Bastille Day, Three Glorious 1830, riots against the Louis-Philippe in 1832, revolution of 1848, resistance to the coup of the future Napoleon III and, of course, the Commune. No wonder that the workers' demonstrations borrow traditional route Bastille-Nation-Republic.

Construction barricade in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in 1870.

Since the late twentieth century with the decline of the craft of furniture, these courses picturesque, deserted by workers, have gradually gentrified and have been converted into apartments or lofts favored by savvy.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

For more information:

http://www.paris-pittoresque.com/rues/201.htm
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_du_Faubourg-Saint-Antoine