Grands Boulevards

The title of this article is ambiguous. The metro station of the same name can be found under Grands Boulevards (Métro Paris) .

The Grands Boulevards [ ɡʁɑ̃ bulvaʁ ] (French, German: large boulevards) are the oldest boulevards in Paris . They follow the course of the former city ​​wall of Ludwig XIII. and now form on the north of the Seine nearby Rive Droite a semicircular transport corridor between the Place de la Madeleine in the west and the Place de la Bastille in the east.

history

The Boulevard du Temple , 1838

Boulevard Beaumarchais (1907)

From 1668 Louis XIV had the northern Paris city wall removed, which was laid out under Charles V and under Louis XIII. had been extended to the west. Under the direction of the architect Pierre Bullet , the so-called Nouveau Cours , tree-lined avenues between the old city gates Porte Saint-Honoré (today Place de la Madeleine ) and the Porte Saint-Antoine at the Bastille, was laid out on the open space that was created . The resulting promenade soon got its name from the Grand Boulevart bastion north of the Bastille . The French word boulevard has referred to a city wall since the Middle Ages (from Dutch bollwerc , ' bulwark ' ).

There were two projects within the “ boulevard intérieur ”, the northern (“ boulevard du Nord ”) and the southern (“ boulevard du Midi ”). Its name indicates its (present-day) location, because the northern ones are in the Rive Droite (north of the Seine ), the southern ones in the Rive Gauche (south of the Seine). The north with a length of 2,643 meters was originally divided into 12 sections, namely the boulevards Bourdon and Saint Antoine (today: Boulevard Beaumarchais ; 750 m), des Filles-du-Calvaire (210 m), du Temple (405 m) , Saint-Martin (470 m), Saint Denis (210 m), de Bonne Nouvelle (347 m), Poissonière (351 m), Montmartre (215 m), des Italy (390 m), des Capucines (440 m) and de la Madelaine (220 m). The northern boulevards were completed in 1704, the southern only in 1761. The core section of this - between the Boulevard de la Madeleine on La Madeleine and the Boulevard Beaumarchais on the Place de la Bastille - has been called Grands Boulevards since 1785 . The boulevard Beaumarchais had an 18 meter wide median and was one of the first to be commissioned on June 7, 1670. The Grands Boulevards developed into entertainment streets with ballrooms, brothels and boulevard theaters in the 18th century .

During the Second Empire , the Parisian prefect Georges-Eugène Haussmann took the Grands Boulevards as a model for the redesign of the then still medieval city. From 1853, Haussmann had an idea from Emperor Napoleon III. and, following the example of London or Berlin, lay out a number of other boulevards as boulevards across the city. Countless houses in the city center were demolished for this.

Characteristic

Boulevard Saint-Denis with Porte Saint-Martin (2014)

The Grands Boulevards are wide avenues with mostly tree-lined pedestrian paths ( pavements ) and multi-lane driveways. The total width of the streets is at least thirty meters. Taken together they form a semi-circular arch that is almost three kilometers long.

In the west, the Grands Boulevards begin north of the Place de la Concorde with the 282-meter-long Rue Royale , which continues on the Boulevard de la Madeleine . This is followed by the Boulevard des Capucines , which merges south of the Opéra Garnier into the Boulevard des Italiens . The boulevard Montmartre begins at the northernmost point , followed by the boulevard Poissonnière and the boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle to the old city gate Porte Saint-Denis . This is where the short Boulevard Saint-Denis (210 m) begins, which turns into Boulevard Saint-Martin at Porte Saint-Martin . To the south of the Place de la République are the Boulevard du Temple , the Boulevard des Filles-du-Calvaire and the Boulevard Beaumarchais , which ends at the Place de la Bastille .

The boulevards are very lively and busy, and there are numerous financial, cultural and government institutions as well as many retailers, restaurants and cafes among the residents. Famous sights are the Café de la Paix (opened on May 5, 1862), the Art Deco cinema Le Grand Rex (December 8, 1932) or the Olympic Theater (April 12, 1893). Parts of the Grands Boulevards are an important route for official processions. The entire course of the Grands Boulevards is different Metro lines under performs. There are a total of eleven stations. The Grands Boulevards station on Boulevard Poissonnière is served by lines 8 and 9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Map of Turgot, Paris, 1736. See pages 5 and 6 of the Plan de Turgot .
2. ↑ Ursula Herrmann, Knaurs etymologisches Lexikon , 1982, p. 80.
3. ↑ ^{a b} A and W Calignani: The History of Paris , 1825, p. 178 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
4. ↑ Hildegard Schröteler-von Brandt: Stadtbau- und Urbanungsgeschichte , 2008, p. 78 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
5. ↑ Jacques-Antoine Dulaure: Nouvelle description of curiosités de Paris . Paris, 1787, pp. 85ff. ( accessed online November 14, 2013)
6. ↑ Hans-Joachim Völse: Paris , 2008, p. 51 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
7. ^ Allan B. Jacobs, Elizabeth Macdonald, Yodan Rofé: The Boulevard Book. MIT Press, 2002, ISBN 9780262600583 , p. 77 (English; limited preview in Google book search).
8. ↑ Ruth Blackmore: The Mini Rough Guide to Paris , 2011, p. 60 ( limited preview in the Google book search).