Paris in the Middle Ages

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Middle Ages was for Paris the time in the city as a residence of kapetinginischen kings of France ascended to the metropolis to stand up to the end of the Hundred Years War to establish itself as administrative and economic center of France and to emancipate from the kingdom.

prehistory

Lutetia was founded around the 3rd century BC. BC at the junction of a road leading from north to south across the Seine , on an island lying in this river, the Île de la Cité , which favored the transition. This street is today's Rue de la Cité on the island (in the following the current street names are used), which flows north into Rue Saint-Martin (further out of town, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin) and south into Rue Saint- Jacques (further out of town on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques).

In the Gallo-Roman era, the wood-fortified Gallic city ​​on the Seine island was joined by an open settlement on the left bank of the Seine ( Rive gauche ) around Rue Saint-Jacques, a port developed and Lutetia became a regional center. In the 3rd century the settlement on the left bank of the Seine fell victim to the migration of peoples . The Cité was then given a walled enclosure at the end of the 3rd century, where the Roman bridge that connected the Cité to the right bank of the Seine ( Rive droite ) and the Rue Saint-Martin was protected at its northern end by a fort ( Châtelet ) . During this time, Lutetia took the name Paris.

Paris at the time of the Merovingians and Carolingians

In the Frankish times, Paris barely protruded beyond the island, only a few buildings were built outside. The large monasteries arose on the left bank of the river, the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève (then still Saints Apôtres Pierre et Paul) and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the west (initially Sainte Croix, later Sainte Croix et Saint Vincent). Clovis I († 511) chose Sainte-Geneviève to be buried. Clovis's son Childebert I made Paris his residence and Saint-Germain-des-Prés the second royal necropolis (for details see churches and monasteries ). When Charibert I died in 567, Paris was the general capital of the Merovingian kings, which was not changed by the storm that devastated the Seine valley in 583 - the first major and documented flood. The synod of 614, which led to the Edictum Chlotharii , took place here. Dagobert I († 639), who resided in the fortress on the Cité , founded the market in Lendit , which was to become one of the largest of the Middle Ages, and made the Saint-Denis Abbey in the north his, the third and final royal necropolis . It was during this period that the name Paris appeared on coins for the first time thanks to St. Eligius (Éloi). Also in Paris the reunification of the Franconian sub- kingdoms took place under Chlothar II. († 629/639). The left bank of the river was now settled again, eight of the thirteen Merovingian cemeteries were found here, while another five are on the island, only one on the north bank, near today's Hôtel de Ville .

Under the Carolingians , whose ties are more to be sought in Austrasia , Neustria - and thus also Paris - was no longer in the political center: the fortress was only held by a count (see County of Paris ). Nevertheless, one of the synods convened by Louis the Pious in Paris in 829 to prepare the successor to Charles the Bald , his son from his second marriage, took place. Charles the Bald himself then only came to town twice.

The rise of the Capetians

The siege of Paris by the Normans in 866 (drawing from the 19th century)

The fate of the city took a decisive turn with the arrival of the Normans and with the Neustrian counts who organized the defense. The Normans first appeared in front of the city in March 845, devastated the surrounding area and withdrew after Charlemagne had paid them a ransom. They came back in 856, 865 and 866, this time they occupied the city and left under similar conditions. Charles the Bald finally ordered the rebuilding of the Roman city wall of the Cité and the fortification of the bridges.

From this moment the Count of Paris played such an important role in Western France that Count Konrad († after 862) from the House of Welfs - together with Gauzlin († 886), the Abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés - moved to the Attempts by Ludwig the German (around 806–876) to take over the throne that was vacant after the death of Ludwig the Stammler (879).

The Normans reappeared in front of the city in November 885 and besieged it until October 886 (see Siege of Paris (885-886) ). The city was defended by Gauzlin, who had been Bishop of Paris since 884 , his successor as Abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Ebalus, and by the new Count Odo of Paris (around 865-898), who was appointed on Gauzlin's recommendation the eldest son of Robert the Strong (X 866) - the Capetians took the stage in the city. In the end, Charles the Fat (839-888) managed to withdraw the Normans by paying 700 livres .

During this time the first suburbs, Faubourgs, developed around the monasteries . The Faubourg Saint-Marcel in the southeast was fortified from the 6th century, disappeared again in the 9th century and was re-established in the 10th century. The suburb of Saint-Germain-des-Prés further west developed in the 9th century. Two settlements grew up on the right bank at the same time:

who benefit from the resurgence of river trade, which landed mainly on the right bank of the Seine. Further on the road to the north, the village of St-Martin-des-Champs (today in the 3rd arrondissement (Temple) ) arose .

The election of Odo as king of the west of France was a stroke of luck for Paris. The city was now, together with Orléans, one of the fixed points of the Domaine royal of the Hugo Capets family (941–996). Without being a real capital, Paris became the preferred residence of the kings Odo, the former Count of Paris, Robert I (866-923) and Hugo Capet. The development was threatened again when Hugh Capet Paris in gratitude for their support during his rise handed his main advisor, Count Burchard Venerable of Vendôme († 1007), who inherited the city to his son, Renaud , Bishop of Paris since 991. With Rainald's death in 1016, Paris finally reverted to the crown. From now on there were no more counts in Paris, only vice counts ( viscounts ) and from around 1060 bailiffs ( prévôts ).

Paris becomes the political center of France

The old Louvre to Viollet-le-Duc with the Grand Tour in the center
The Palais de la Cité after Viollet-le-Duc
Plan of the Palais de la Cité according to Viollet-le-Duc

Like Aachen with the Carolingians, Paris had now become the symbol for the Capetians - the campaign of Emperor Otto II (955–983) in 978 was directed against Paris and collapsed in front of the city when the emperor pitched his camp on Montmartre had withdrawn without result. The first Capetians made Paris their habitual abode, and it was the only city that treated them that way, as they spent the rest of their time not in other cities but in the castles of the Domaine royal . The Palais de la Cité was rebuilt at the beginning of the 10th century by Robert the Pious (972-1031). At that time the Roman bridge was demolished. All that remained on the great arm of the Seine was the fortified Great Bridge ( Grand Pont , today Pont au Change ), which was probably built at the end of the 9th century, after the end of the Norman raids.

150 years later, under Louis VII (1120–1180), Paris was neither the capital of the kingdom nor the geographical center of the royal domain, which at the time extended into the Berry . The Vexin , Normandy (under English sovereignty), Chartrain and Champagne (under the sovereignty of the House of Blois , the most powerful rivals of the kings) are half a day's journey from Paris, and thus represent a permanent threat to the Capetians. Paris is merely the preferred royal residence where the king most frequently gathers his court.

Only Philipp August (1165–1223) turned Paris into a real capital within twenty years. He founded the nucleus for the central institutions and thus gave his empire the uniform structures that were to make it a modern state: the chancellery, the audit office, the treasury, all of which he settled in Paris. And as a framework and symbol of this centralization, he had the thick tower of the Louvre ( great tour du Louvre ) built - not within the city, but also only a little away from the city - from which he wanted to manage the royal property.

But the Louvre quickly proved that it was literally not up to the challenge. At the same time fortress and prison, sometimes also a treasury, it was soon no longer an option as a royal residence and became too small to receive the French aristocracy and occasionally the English or German ones. If Louis the Saint had only expanded the old palace to include the Sainte-Chapelle , Philip the Fair (1268-1314) set about building a completely new palace in the same place, which he could inaugurate at Whitsun 1313 with a festival at which the English King Edward II (1284-1327) was present and three of his, Philip's, sons were knighted. The Tour Saint-Louis (today Tour Bonbec ) was joined by the Tour d'Argent and the Tour de César , and the Salle des Gens d'Armes , a four-aisled banquet and theater hall, 64 by 27.5 meters, was the center of the Palace.

The king lived in the Louvre or, to the east of the city, in Vincennes Castle , the latter always benefiting him when things were brewing in the city and the use of alternative quarters was indicated. Charles V (1338–1380), who enlarged Vincennes, at the same time expanded the Louvre by two buildings in which it was more pleasant to reside than in the narrow donjon of Philip Augustus, but also left the Hôtel Saint-Paul (also Hôtel Saint-Pol) on the banks of the Seine above the Place de Grève , which then became his favorite place to stay.

Between the times of Louis VI. (1081–1137) and Philip VI. (1293-1350) the political balance in the king's environment had fundamentally shifted, not least because of the measures taken by Philip Augustus. In the beginning, the lower nobility of the Île-de-France with names like Garlande , Montlhéry and Montmorency seized or challenged power for themselves ( Le Puiset ), but in the second half of the 12th century it disappeared from the political stage. He made room for two types of politicians, the high nobility on the one hand, and the technocrats on the other, mostly lawyers. The crown is no longer an Ile-de-France business . At the time of Philip the Fair, one finds in the positions in Paris the diplomat, Ludwig von Évreux (1276-1319), who is a half-brother of the king, the Norman knight Enguerrand de Marigny (around 1260-1315) and the southern legists Pierre Flote († 1302) and Guillaume de Nogaret (around 1260–1313). Contracts are now being concluded in Paris. It was a matter of course in Paris that those assemblies were called at the beginning of the fourteenth century that were to become the Estates- General , and at the end of the century the assemblies that determined France's position against the Western schism .

Paris becomes the economic center of France

The streets and the ports

Paris was created at the junction of a north-south axis over the Seine flowing from east to west - a croisée ( intersection ) that created a transshipment point and made the place the center of a vast region with grain production and viticulture.

One part of the Croisée is the Seine and the tributaries that connect Troyes and Auxerre with Rouen and Compiègne . The capital and the region are supplied via this route, the wines of Burgundy ( Beaune and Auxerre) as well as those from Orléanais and Auvergne are delivered, as are the wines of extremely different quality ( Suresnes , Chaillot , Argenteuil) , which were then known as French ) turned over. In peacetime, when the road to Rouen was open, salt from Brittany and the Poitou was brought up the river via Harfleur , as was fish from Dieppe and Rouen. In wartime, however, the road to Orléans was the first priority for these goods . All the building materials for the city, wood and stone, including that for the paving, came by ship. This network was completed by roads that, directly or indirectly in combination with the Oise , Yonne or Loing, reach Flanders , Normandy , Champagne , serving the markets of Lille , Arras and Amiens , but also Burgundy and the Loire Valley .

This road network was mainly used to ensure the city's supply of grain, vegetables and meat from the region, but also the products of the textile industry in Flanders, Artois and Normandy, as well as Norman metalworking; Luxury goods from the countries of the Mediterranean also came this way and not across the rivers. As a transshipment point for the needs of the city, Louis VII had a wholesale market with permanent infrastructure built at Les Champeaux around 1137 : the halls - Les Halles .

Among the ports - both for the supplies that came across the river and as a transshipment point - the Port en Grève was the most important, the port below and to the east the Place de Grève (today Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville ), which also had an infrastructure of camps ( chantiers ) and catering (wine bars, inns). The word Grève denoted a shallow sandy or pebble beach, and the name referred to the possibility of pulling ships ashore, and which had to be used when there were no pontoons . The place is also the etymological root for the French word for strike , as this was the first time in France where day laborers, the showers and organized entrepreneurs, the Nautae , met on a large scale .

Upstream the Port en Grève was through the ports of Saint-Gervais , à l'Archévêque (with the Archbishop of Sens , who had his residence here, the Hôtel de Sens ), and Barrés (after the Carmelites who lived here and their striped fabrics, see below) extended.

The port at the École Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois just above the Louvre , called Port de l'École , was responsible for the traffic downstream, which one did not want to or could not pass the bridges because they were simply too low for that . This port was called Place aux marchands until 1413 , before it became Port de l'École - although this spelling of the name is misleading: it does not come from the school (French École , Latin Schola ), but from the level (French. Échelle , Latin Scala ), who was located here.

There was a port for Burgundian wine, a port for French wine, a coal port, two ports for grain (Port au Blé) and hay (Port au Foin), one each above and below the bridge; The ones above the bridge and the Port en Grève are probably just other names for the extensions just mentioned, the two below the bridge, which also extended the Port de l'École downstream, extended beyond the Louvre. In addition, there were other ports on the north side of the Île de la Cité and thus on the large arm of the Seine, the Port aux Œufs (egg port), Port Saint-Landry and Port Notre-Dame (also called Port des Chanoines , the port of the canons of the Notre-Dame monastery ), which were still very active in the 12th century, but lost all importance in the 13th century due to a lack of storage capacities that were available opposite at Port en Grève , and in the following years - like the Port de l 'Évêque on the little arm of the Seine at the level of the episcopal palace', which had difficulties with navigation and therefore could not follow the economic upswing - only served local needs.

The economic boom

After the invasion of Emperor Otto II was repulsed in 978 , Paris and the surrounding area enjoyed a relatively long period of peace under the first Capetians. In the 11th century the city expanded slowly, and it was not until the 12th century, with the increase in economic importance, that the population suddenly rose sharply: on the right bank of the river near the port, a trading town developed that little developed later extended to the left bank.

In the 12th century, however, Paris was only of secondary importance compared to the markets of Champagne . In the 13th century, however, the consolidation of the capital's function led to the wealthy ruling class of the country coming to Paris, the nobility and clergy who found it useful to live near the court for part of the year - dukes, counts and Archbishops built their palaces ( hôtels ) in the city - as did the dignitaries of the public service, royal officials, lawyers, prosecutors and notaries. At the time of John the Good (1319-1364) the King of Navarre and the King of Bohemia were among the inhabitants of the city. Under Charles VI. (1368-1422) and his wife Isabeau , Duke Ludwig VII of Bavaria as the queen's brother took such an important position in Paris that the Armagnacs , after they had taken over the city in 1413, tried to cast him in a bad light to put.

Added to this was the distribution of the tax revenue of the entire kingdom in the city, which flowed to a greater extent through the royal household and through the nobles, who received a royal pension. The concentration of capital in Paris and the available liquidity locally attracted merchants who followed the flow of money and settled in Paris not only as a center of information and decision-making, but also as a rapidly growing capital market - Paris was the only city in western Europe which combined the political and administrative and judicial, intellectual and university functions.

All of this quickly leads to a market for luxury and abundance. Haberdashery dealers, furriers and delicatessens dominated the business world. Since the end of the 13th century, Paris attracted so many merchants from Flanders and Italy that the consequences were even felt in the Champagne markets . Until then, these had the advantage of being able to offer an almost permanent trade and barter market thanks to an annual cycle of six main markets and four cities, which was hardly worth anything when Paris actually presented itself as a permanent market, which was under the economic crisis suffered in the 14th century, but remained relatively wealthy through the end of the century, and benefited from the recovery of the years 1380–1400, when everyone believed the Anglo-French conflict would end . Throughout the 14th century, the most important trading and banking houses had a correspondent, a branch or even a resident partner in the city - but without making Paris one of the great money markets of the West: the headquarters stayed where they were before , especially in Flanders.

The intellectual life in Paris

The intellectual life of Paris awoke in the 11th century, not only in the Cité, where the cathedral school was located ( Wilhelm von Champeaux (around 1070–1121) had Abelard (1079–1142) as a student), but also in the monasteries : the school of Sainte-Geneviève , that of Saint-Germain-des-Prés , whose scriptorium was highly regarded, and especially that of Saint-Victor , whose teaching enjoyed an exceptional reputation throughout the Christian West.

The Parisian logicians and theologians already enjoyed a considerable reputation. Their need for intellectual independence and the incompatibility of the life of the canons with that of the students led teachers and students to move to the new districts on the Left Bank around 1200, which were under the more tolerant authority of the Abbot of Sainte-Geneviève.

The 1200 by King Philip August , 1210–1215 by Pope Innocent III. (1161-1216) and his legate Robert von Courson , 1219 from Pope Honorius III. (before 1160-1227) and 1231 by Pope Gregory IX. (around 1167–1241) ( Papal Bull Parens scientiarum ) founded University of Paris with its scientific and the higher-level faculties of theology, law and medicine, quickly formed a world of its own: a largely male and celibate group with its own services (wine bars, copyists and Parchments ) and own rules of public order. Soon after the name of the founder of its theological faculty, Robert von Sorbon , the Sorbonne enjoyed an excellent reputation. In the middle of the 13th century Albertus Magnus (around 1200–1280), Siger von Brabant (1235 / 40–1284) and Thomas Aquinas (around 1225–1274) as well as the cardinal and doctor of the church Bonaventure (1217–1274) attended the university.

As early as the 12th century, the university was faced with a number of problems:

  • Since the ecclesiastical authorities could forbid the teaching of civil law at any time, the legal training was incomplete. The Paris law students therefore soon switched to adding two years of civil law in Orléans to their training in canon law in Paris .
  • The university was involved in all the crises that affected teaching at the time, especially since these were generally closely interlinked; this included the disputes between the secular teachers and the mendicant orders spreading across the university and the discussions about Aristotelianism .

In the 13th century, ecclesiastical rather than religious questions pushed these debates into the background. Especially against the background of the Western schism , the reform of the church and then the reform of the state were discussed, while at the same time the new currents of humanism remained alien to the university, for which the intellectual milieus of the large chancelleries, that of the king and of the Responsible for the Duke of Orléans . In addition, the university's charisma, already endangered by the political commitment of some teachers, is being curtailed by new competitors: because territorial princes and apanagists will also want to ensure the education of their administrative and legal elites on site without having to resort to Paris the universities of Poitiers (1421), Dole (1422), Leuven (1425), Caen (1432) and Bourges (1463) were founded, which also markedly reduced the influx of students to Paris.

College de Navarre (1440)

Despite these crises, which also included the disregard resulting from the university's involvement in the trial of Joan of Arc in the 15th century, an intellectual dynamic developed after the end of the Hundred Years War that led to the establishment of more schools more quickly As a result, they were even housed in the palaces of ecclesiastical lords when they no longer saw the need to live in the capital. In 1450 there were already about 60 schools, including

At the end of the 15th century, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (1450 / 55–1536), Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) taught in Paris, and it is the Sorbonne where the rector Guillaume Fichet (1433-around 1480) and the metaphysician Johannes Heynlin (1430–1496) set up the first Parisian printing press in 1470.

It should also be mentioned that astronomy was so advanced in Paris that the famous Alfonsin Tables could be developed here.

Paris is becoming a big city

Beginnings of an infrastructure

Model of the Île de la Cité during the construction of the Pont Neuf , view from the east with Notre-Dame in the foreground
Model of the Île de la Cité during the construction of the Pont Neuf, view from the north-west

Urbanization made progress in the 13th and 14th centuries. Louis VII ordered the drainage of the marshes ( Marais ) around 1165 . The important streets on the right bank were paved at the expense of the residents. In addition, litter that residents simply put in front of their doors is regularly cleared from the lane and accumulated outside the walls.

Three aqueducts brought drinking water from Belleville and Le Pré-Saint-Gervais to the six public wells that were built between 1182 and 1400 in the newly developed areas of the Rive Droite and which supplemented the resources of the myriad private wells.

  1. The Fontaine Sainte-Avoye stood in the Rue Sainte-Avoye opposite the Church of Sainte Avoye, directly at the old Porte du Temple; Rue Sainte Avoyen is now Rue du Temple, and the fountain was on what is now the corner of Rue Rambuteau.
  2. The Fontaine Maubuée was 250 meters to the west on the corner of Rue Saint-Martin (No. 122) and Rue Maubuée, which supplied water for 700 years until Rue Maubuée and Fontaine Maubuée were used to build the Center Georges-Pompidou and its forecourt had to give way.
  3. The Fontaine Saint-Julien was located just 180 meters down Rue Saint-Martin out of town, at the Saint-Julien church, less than 100 meters north of Rue Rambuteau.
  4. Just 100 meters to the northwest was the Fontaine Saint-Leu on Rue Salle au Comte, just a few meters from the city wall, between the old Porte Saint-Denis and the old Porte Saint-Martin, north of the Saint-Leu-Saint church -Gilles and a few meters south of the Rue aux Ours; today the Boulevard de Sébastopol runs here .
  5. The Fontaine des Innocents stood 200 meters west of the Fontaine Maubuée at the northeast corner of the Saints Innocents church; it is where the rue Saint-Denis meets today's rue Berger, 100 meters east of Châtelet / Les Halles ; the fountain was moved in the 18th century, after the church was demolished, to its current location, the Square des Innocents, one block further south.
  6. The westernmost of the six fountains was the Fontaine des Halles on the northern edge of the market place Les Halles and at the end of the (now shortened) Rue des Prêcheurs, about 200 meters northwest of the Fontaine des Innocents; at the moment the northeast corner of the Jardin du Forum des Halles is located here.

In addition, the first sewers ( égouts ) were built around 1350 , including above all the Grand égout de ceinture , each canal that encompassed the city within the walls of Étienne Marcel (see below) and mostly only a short distance from them in the north and east. This canal started on Rue Saint-Antoine and ended at the new Porte Montmartre in the northwest. Its course corresponds to that of today's Rue de Turenne (which was then also called Rue de l'Égout) to the point where a second canal was added, which ran along Rue Barbette, the upper part of today's Rue Vieille du Temple , so that one can assume that the course of the canal, at least here, helped determine the further construction of the roads.

The origins of local government

Model of the Île de la Cité during the construction of the Pont Neuf, view from the southeast: Notre-Dame, Petit Châtelet, above the Palais
Model of the Île de la Cité at the time of the construction of the Pont Neuf, view from the west: in the foreground the Pont Neuf, behind it the Palais de la Cité

Politically, Paris had been under a special administration since the 12th century. Two bailiffs ( Prévôts ) directed the ordinary royal justice and financial administration. Louis IX (1214–1270) abolished this system and the offices out of concern about financial irregularities, first only that of the judge, then both. He summarized the functions and appointed a single Garde de la prévoté et vicomté de Paris (1261). The first was Étienne Boileau , a former bailiff of Orléans , whose outstanding achievement was to have the customs and rights of the guilds written down: his livre des métiers became the basis of all professional regulations in the capital. The so-called Vogt of Paris ( Prévôt de Paris ) quickly became the highest-ranking Vogt of the French bailiffs. He was soon given two deputies, one for civil and one for criminal jurisdiction, and was exempt from fiscal duties performed by royal tax collectors. Since the middle of the 14th century, the Vogt was removed from the nobility or ennobled immediately.

Until the 1410s, the function of the capital was inextricably linked to the main residence of the king. The Vincennes castle was no longer considered a safe and convenient alternative accommodation. Paris was the capital because the king and his entourage were here. The bond was strengthened by Charles V , who stayed in the city a lot, unlike his father John II , who risked his crown on the battlefield and who - when he was in Paris - surrounded by his political and intellectual advisers lived near his "library", which he set up in the Louvre and which became the basis of first the royal and then the French national library.

In his political work, the bailiff was faced with a trade association to which the traders who use the river had come together against competition from Rouen since the 12th century . This association is based in the Parloir aux Bourgeois , which was initially installed at the foot of the Rue Saint-Denis near the Grand Châtelet (see below), but was temporarily relocated to the left bank of the Seine near the Porte Saint-Jacques in the 14th century (With which he was very far removed from the political and economic centers). In 1357, Étienne Marcel moved him to the Place de Grève , in the famous Maison aux Piliers , which he had bought for this purpose and which was immediately regarded as the Hôtel de Ville .

The association had its rights and privileges since the time of Louis VI. , which Louis VII confirmed in 1171. He had the monopoly of river navigation in the Détroits , which actually meant the middle Seine and its tributaries. From Ludwig IX. were then the chairman of the association, the Prévôt des marchands , and his four lay judges (the Échevins ), who were elected for four or two years from the city's merchant aristocracy , were accepted by the king as interlocutors in all areas in which the royal administration - the did not grant the capital the status of a municipality, which in turn gave the largest city in the kingdom a dangerous special position - it could not use a representative institution of the Parisian bourgeoisie.

As a result, the association quickly changed from a representative of trade interests into an organ to represent the common interests of the citizens. In fact, the Prévôt des marchands and the lay judges created a municipal administration with officials who took care of the material needs of the city - garbage collection, road construction, night watch, supervision - as well as the commercial justice system and the port and market police.

This organization was a church without bearing the name. Their jurisprudence fitted perfectly into the existing system and the royal prosecutor also made use of the city prosecutor's office. It began to play a political role in the 14th century when the Prévôt des marchands Étienne Marcel , who came from an upper-class family divided by economic conflicts of interest, in 1356 - the year of the defeat of Poitiers and the capture of the king - in favor of a reform movement took over the leadership of a clearly revolutionary movement from the Estates General . His short-lived collaboration with the Jacquerie caused a change in sentiment among his allies and the Parisians themselves, as a result of which Marcel was murdered and Paris returned to order - and the Dauphin Karl , regent during his father's imprisonment, was smart enough to face a city whose loyalty he needed to keep sanctions in check while he was negotiating with the British. The government of the dukes, on the other hand, ( Louis of Anjou , Johann von Berry and Philip of Burgundy as regents for the underage Charles VI. ) Showed themselves to be less generous after the revolt of the Maillotins in 1383 : the privileges of the association were abolished and the Prévôt des marchands deposed. Assigned to the overseer of the bailiwick of the merchants in 1389, the advocate Jean Jouvenel managed to gradually return to the old situation, which was definitely restored in 1412 by the regiment of the Bourguignons , which were concerned to make the bourgeoisie balanced.

The Prévôts des marchands and lay judges elected from 1412 onwards still have a majority of traders and craftsmen: haberdashery, fur traders, money changers. Between 1412 and 1420 there were a few butchers. From 1445, however, the bailiwick of the merchants was filled by royal officials, lawyers or financiers. They resided in the Maison aux Piliers until the 1450s , which threatened to collapse at the end of the 15th century. The house was rebuilt in the 16th century and again in the 1880s after the fires of the Paris Commune - today's Hôtel de Ville in the 4th arrondissement . The square in front of the Maison aux Piliers , the Place de Grève , was renamed Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville in 1803 .

The north-south axis and the Seine bridges

Paris when Philip August took office (1180)

The traffic situation of Paris is determined by the topography: the transition over a river by means of an island, an intersection of traffic routes north-south and west-east. In Gallo-Roman times, this traffic route was continuous, a typical Cardo , which then broke due to the shift of the northern traffic flows to the west, from the Franconian residence of Soissons to the economically up-and-coming Flanders . In ancient times, the main street on the right bank was Rue Saint-Martin , which ended at the old Roman bridge, today's Pont Notre-Dame . This was replaced in the Middle Ages by Rue Saint-Denis , the road to Flanders, which ends at the Grand-Pont (today's Pont au Change ) and has no direct connection with the main road on the left bank, which in turn is the beginning of the road to Orléans and Burgundy and starts at the Petit Pont , rue Saint-Jacques . The result of this broken axle was a difficult hike through the many narrow cross streets of the Cité or the Rive Droite .

In addition, in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the north-south axis did not cross a decumanus , no comparable west-east main street, which Paris would not get until the interventions of Baron Haussmann (1809-1891). On the other hand, there were a multitude of narrow streets parallel to the rue Saint-Honoré, which had only been emerging since the construction of the halls (but which, due to the further course of the Seine, will have no meaning beyond the surroundings of the city - the overland connection to Normandy will continue to be over Saint-Denis and thus go back over the Rue Saint-Denis) and to the Rue Saint-Antoine , the only street running across the main axis that leads to Melun and into the Champagne region, but cannot represent a Decumanus due to the missing counterpart in the west.

In addition, this divided Paris intersection is also poorly connected to the economic and political centers of the city, the Palais de la Cité , Les Halles , the port and the Place de Grève . As a result, Paris was a city with extremely difficult traffic conditions as early as the 13th century.

The construction of new bridges at the end of the Middle Ages improved the situation a little. The old Roman bridge still existed until the end of the Norman raids, i.e. the end of the 9th century, after which Paris had only two wooden bridges until the 14th century, the Grand Pont ( Pont au Change ) on the right and the Petit Pont on the left Banks that were secured at their outer ends by forts, the Grand Châtelet (at today's Place du Châtelet ) and the Petit Châtelet . Both were initially made of wood and were only later made of stone. When the Châtelets lost their old function with the construction of the city wall, Philipp August had the Grand Châtelet repaired and made it the seat of the royal Prévôt, including the judicial building and prison.

In 1313 the first bank fortifications, the Quai de Nesle (today Quai de Conti ) and the Quai des Grands Augustins , were built, at the upper end of which the Prévôt Hugues Aubriot in 1379 the Pont Saint-Michel at the confluence of the Rue de la Harpe and the Rue Saint -André des Arts had it built as a stone bridge, with which he added the Petit Pont and the connection between the Cité and the left bank. The bridges were heavily built up and therefore economic centers of the city - 140 houses and 112 shops on the Grand Pont - and still weighed down with mills and were washed away several times by floods and ice: the Petit Pont collapsed in 1393, in January 1408 both bridges of the small arms of the Seine (Petit Pont and the new Pont Saint-Michel) victims of the forces of nature, which effectively divided the city in two. The torn away bridges were replaced, but also the stone bridge only made of wood.

Paris in Schedel's World Chronicle (1493)

It was not until the flood of 1499 that the old north-south road was finally built as a stone bridge on the great arm of the Seine of the Pont Notre-Dame a little above the Grand Pont on the site of the Roman bridge that had been demolished centuries earlier, and the old north-south road was finally open again there were now four bridges over the Seine. A footbridge previously existed here, the Planche Mibray, which carried a mill and served the fishermen as a boat dock, but which did not initially cross the Seine arm and thus did not connect the Cité with the Rue Saint-Martin. It was only later extended to the island before it was finally replaced by the stone Pont Notre-Dame.

Farther down the river, ferrymen ensured the transfer of people and goods between the Louvre and the Tour de Nesle . And finally there was the Pont de la Tournelle (which is still called that today) between the Rive Gauche and the Île de Notre-Dame, the swampy western part of today's Île Saint-Louis , which was uninhabited until the 17th century only served to reach the island dry-footed and had no further counterpart on the other bank. However, the increase in crossings should not hide the fact that the bridges, as meeting points, craft and economic centers, were constantly clogged.

The city walls

The high medieval city was about the size of the city of late antiquity. It consisted of the fortified Cité on the island and some settlements on the two banks of the river, at the ends of the bridges. The growth of the city on the right bank seems to have justified the construction of a city wall in the 9th century, perhaps a simple rampart crowned by a palisade and representing the outer edge of the city, for which the names Porte Paris and are still used today Porte Baudoyer . On the left bank, the defended settlements were those near the monasteries (Sainte-Geneviève, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Victor, Saint-Marcel).

The wall of Philip Augustus

City map with the wall of Philip Augustus of Viollet-le-Duc
Remaining walls of Philip Augustus, Rue Clovis, 5th arr.
Tower of the Walls of Philip Augustus, Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 4th arr.
Plan of the Tour de Nesle to Viollet-le-Duc
Tour de Nesle to Viollet-le-Duc

In the 12th century, Paris pushed beyond this enclosure. On the right bank they did not stop building. On the left bank, the settlement area developed between the Seine and the first slopes. The security of the growing population, which had increased from 30,000 to 50,000 in thirty years, had to be guaranteed. Philipp August had a new city wall built between 1190 and 1210, 9 meters high, 2 to 3 meters wide, with 33 towers in the north, 34 in the south, and 12 city gates. The wall enclosed 250 hectares with a diameter of 2 kilometers, extended to the Louvre in the west and to the extreme limits of Port en Grève in the east. It comprised the halls in the north, the suburb of Sainte-Geneviève and the settlements around the young university in the south. Sufficiently large, the wall lasted for a century, and still encompasses a city divided into three parts: the Cité , the religious, administrative and judicial heart. the north bank, la Ville , the commercial center connected to the port - Port en Grève, Port de l'École - and the halls; the southern bank is l'Université .

The wall began with the Seine at the southeast corner of the Louvre

  • the Tour du Coin with a passage on the river bank, led along the east side of the (old) Louvre, and had with
  • the Porte Saint-Honoré on Rue Saint-Honoré (No. 111) was the first city gate. 480 meters to the northeast
  • the Porte Montmartre on Rue Montmartre ; their location was a few meters before the street meets rue Étienne Marcel . Then followed 330 meters east
  • the Porte Saint-Denis on the Rue Saint-Denis , a few meters after the intersection with the Rue aux Ours or Rue Étienne Marcel , and another 180 meters to the east
  • the Porte Saint-Martin on the Rue Saint-Martin , immediately after the intersection with the Rue aux Ours - both city gates are about 750 meters from the Seine and thus represent the greatest distance in the north. The next city gate was 330 meters further south-east
  • the Porte du Temple on the Rue du Temple , a few meters after the intersection with the Rue Rambuteau (about 600 meters outside was the Temple , the residence of the Knights Templar near today's Place de la République ). It followed 330 meters southeast
  • the Porte Barbette on Rue Vieille du Temple just before the junction with Rue des Francs Bourgeois , and finally
  • the Porte Sainte-Antoine where the Rue de Rivoli merges into the Rue Saint-Antoine . The northern ring closed too
  • the Tour Barbeau on the Seine opposite the Île Saint-Louis , also with a passage on the river bank.

The southern wall began opposite the Louvre with

  • the Tour de Nesle on the riverside, which despite its name was also a gate. This was followed by 420 meters inland
  • the Porte Bucy just before the end of rue Saint-André des Arts , the road to Saint Germain-des-Prés that stayed outside the city. Little further came then
  • the Porte Saint-Germain , which stood on Place Henri Mondor , the place where the Boulevard Saint-Germain on the border between the Quartier de l'Odéon and the Quartier Saint-Germain des Prés (No. 131) widens. Another 450 meters further and about 620 meters from the river stood
  • the Porte Saint-Michel on the Rue de la Harpe (which at this point, around the east entrance of the Jardin du Luxembourg, is now called Boulevard Saint-Michel ), then
  • the Porte Saint-Jacques on the parallel rue Saint-Jacques (about no. 157), at 750 meters making up the greatest distance from the river. 200 meters to the east
  • the Porte Sainte-Geneviève (added later) a little south of the Sainte-Geneviève monastery ; today the Rue d'Ulm is here just before its intersection with the Rue de l'Estrapade . Only 250 meters further and also near the monastery was
  • the Porte Saint-Marcel , later called Porte Bordelle , on the old road to Burgundy, today's Rue Descartes , just before it turns into Rue Mouffetard . Then lay halfway back to the river
  • the Porte Saint-Victor on the road to the Saint-Victor monastery (which was also outside the wall) just before the rue des Écoles meets the rue du Cardinal Lemoine . The ring then closed on the riverbank - again opposite the Ile Saint-Louis - with
  • Le Chardonnet , later called Tournelle , on today's Quai de la Tournelle , also more of a city gate than a tower.

The course of the wall on the right bank of the river can still be traced in the southeast using some street names that correspond to the trenches in front of them:

  • Rue des Fossés Saint-Jacques
  • Rue des Fossés Saint-Victor (now Rue du Cardinal Lemoine)
  • Rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard

(The Rue des Fossés Saint-Marcel is in the Faubourg Saint-Marcel and has to do with the fortifications of this district, but not with those of Paris)

The largest passages in this ring were of course the river in the west and east, protected in the west by the Tour du Coin at the Louvre and the Tour de Nesle , in the east by the Tour Barbeau and the Tournelle . The two opposite towers were each connected with an iron chain, which was pulled up if necessary and thus blocked the river for ships. The main problem was that in the east between the two towers there were still two uninhabited islands, the Île aux Vaches and the Île Notre-Dame (from which the Île Saint-Louis was formed in the 17th century ), which opened up dangerously wide did.

At that time there was another island a little further upstream, the Île Louviers or Île des Javiaux , which was only separated from the right bank by a narrow arm of the river, the Grammont moat, and which was and remained outside the walls. This narrow arm of the river was immediately south of today's Boulevard Morland, west of the last stretch of the Canal Saint-Martin .

There are still remnants of this city wall:

The wall of Étienne Marcel

City map with the wall of Étienne Marcel of Viollet-le-Duc
The Porte Saint-Denis (drawing by Viollet-le-Duc)
The Bastide Saint-Antoine (drawing by Viollet-le-Duc)

Around 1250, Paris was the only city in Europe that combined political, economic and scientific functions. It developed into a demographic problem. The 1328 census counted 61,098 fireplaces, which corresponds to a population of at least 200,000 people. The city of the 14th century expanded far beyond the wall of Philip Augustus . The agricultural areas on the right bank were quickly cultivated, here the houses lined up along the streets to Normandy , Flanders and Champagne up to well beyond the city gates, the Porte Saint-Honoré , Porte Saint-Denis and Porte Saint-Antoine out. From 1356, the Prévôt des marchands Étienne Marcel began building a larger city wall north of the Seine, which was discontinued around 1370 by Charles V and his Prévot Hugues Aubriot. It took until the early 15th century for the wall to be completed.

This wall was adapted as a defense architecture to the requirements of the war, when attackers achieved more with the mechanical artillery of the siege machines than with an assault. Paris was therefore not surrounded by a high wall reinforced by strong towers, but by an earth wall with a low wall, in front of which there is a wide moat and two dry ditches, the sole purpose of which was to keep the artillery at a distance. The city gates were defended by bastides with drawbridges and portcullis.

These new city gates (the Porte Barbette fell away) had the same names as the old ones, only that they were no longer up to 750 meters from the river, but 500 meters further, but still on the streets of the same name:

  • The Porte Saint-Honoré was now on Rue Saint-Honoré at today's number 161 in the immediate vicinity of what was then the Hôpital des Quinze-Vingts , approximately at the level of the Comédie-Française
  • The Porte Montmartre at the intersection of Rue Montmartre and Rue d'Aboukir
  • The Porte Saint-Denis at the confluence of the Rue d'Aboukir and the Rue Saint-Denis shortly before its end (the triumphal arch, called Porte Saint-Denis, dates from the time of Louis XIV. )
  • The Porte Saint-Martin at the intersection of Rue Saint-Martin and Rue Sainte-Apolline or Rue Meslay (the same applies to the triumphal arch called Porte Saint-Martin, which is a few meters further)
  • The Porte du Temple at the confluence of the Rue du Temple with the Place de la République,
  • The Porte Saint-Antoine on the Place de la Bastille .

In the east there was a fortress inside the wall, the Bastide Sainte-Antoine, soon to be called the Bastille , the counterpart to the Louvre in the west. After the uprising of the Jacquerie in 1358, the king gave him orders to build another fortress in the east next to the Louvre in the west. The foundation stone for the building of the Bastille was ceremonially laid on April 22, 1370. Initially a city gate with four towers, 22 meters high and 10 meters deep, it was expanded in 1382 to an eight-tower fortress that turned Rue Saint-Antoine into a dead end; a moat with a connection to the Seine (the last part of today's Canal Saint-Martin ) was another security measure. As a result of the construction, the road had to be diverted and a Nouvelle Porte Saint-Antoine built north of the fortress.

The Louvre, in turn, has now edged with, and here is a piece of preserved these city walls: under the Carrousel du Louvre and the Tuileries , between Rue de Rivoli and the Seine, it was excavated and can (underground) as Fosses Charles V to the public. The temple of the Order of the Knights Templar, which was dissolved at the beginning of the century, was now within the city walls.

At that time the almost unchanged southern wall ring differed essentially only in that there were now two more city gates: the Porte Sainte-Geneviève between Porte Saint Jacques and Porte Saint-Marcel (which was now called Porte Bordelle ), and the Porte Saint- Bernard at the Tournelle on the banks of the Seine, where today the Quai de la Tournelle merges into the Quai Saint-Bernard .

The enlargement of the northern wall ring while maintaining the southern one meant that the two semicircles no longer joined each other: the northern one protruded upstream and downstream far beyond the southern one, creating two gaps that had to be closed along the bank: in the west this happened between the old Tour du Coin at the southeast corner of the Louvre and the new Tour du Bois at the point where the new wall reached the bank (at the level of Pont du Carrousel ). The wall was also pulled through in the east: the old Tour Barbeau opposite the Tournelle was still the end point (in 1357 a ditch was dug across the island exactly on the route between the two towers, so that the chain was now continuous) bricked along the bank, with the aforementioned Île de Javiaux outside. The section of the wall ended at the Tour de Billy on today's Canal Saint-Martin , turned sharply to the left in order to run along today's Boulevard Bourdon towards the Bastille.

In general, the course of the new wall can still be seen today - despite the radical building work by Baron Haussmann and in contrast to the much more winding Rive gauche - even if the streets correspond more to the trenches in front of them than to the walls themselves: with the orientation points Canal Saint-Martin, Bastille, Porte Saint-Denis and Porte Saint-Martin and of course the Louvre itself, results in: Boulevard Bourdon, Boulevard Beaumarchais, Boulevard du Temple , Place de la République , Boulevard Saint-Martin , Rue d'Aboukir and then diagonally through the Palais Royal and across the Tuileries to the Seine.

When the city was threatened from outside - which happened more often during the Hundred Years' War in particular - it was placed under siege by locking the gates au plâtre (in plaster of paris): it was feared that they would be seen open at the decisive moment, if you just locked it. Especially at the time of Bedford's rule, i.e. between 1418 and 1430, this measure was taken, even without a specific reason, but in the knowledge that too many supporters of the French King Charles VII lived in the city for one to risk it, the gates only had to be locked with keys, so that sometimes only two to four gates remained open: Saint-Denis, Saint-Jacques, Saint-Antoine and Saint-Honoré. Remnants of the additional establishment of a system of overseers and guards, for the organization of which the city was divided into Quartiers , Cinquantaines and Dizaines , have been preserved in the administrative structures.

The main events in the city's military history, associated with sieges and the city gates, took place during the Hundred Years War, as part of the occupation by the English:

  • 1418: The Porte de Buci was renamed in the 14th century at the request of the residents of the quarter after Simon II. De Bucy , State Councilor of King John II . In 1418 it was the scene of a serious event for the Parisian people during the clashes between the Armagnacs and Bourguignons and during the mental illness of King Charles VI. On the night of May 28th to 29th, 1418 Perrinet Leclerc, son of a trader on the Petit Pont , who as the "Quartenier de garde" was responsible for the security of the Porte de Buci, stole the keys to the city gate from his father and delivered Paris to the troops of Duke Johann Feart , who then murdered more than a thousand people in the following three days. Tanneguy du Chastel , the royal bailiff of the city, had just enough time to roll up the Dauphin, later King Charles VII , into a blanket, who was denied access to the city for the next 19 years.
  • 1429: On September 8, 1429, the (new) Porte Saint-Honoré was the place where Joan of Arc tried unsuccessfully to force the city to surrender after the coronation of Charles VII in Reims , with an arrow shot by a Parisian was injured.
  • 1436: The Porte Saint-Jacques consisted of two towers with a passage under a pointed arch arcade. It was the most heavily frequented city gate of the southern wall ring. In the summer of 1417 a drawbridge was added to it in view of the threat from the Bourguignons . It was through this gate that L'Isle-Adam's troops entered the city at dawn on April 13, 1436 to end the English occupation.

Medieval secular buildings

The residence of the nobility was particularly important in Paris at the time (13th-14th centuries), when their functions as capital and residence were combined. These princely residences, the houses of the barons and the prelates, changed their nature in the 14th century. Charles V modernized the Louvre, had two wings added, which are more open than the old donjon, and had Raymond du Temple erect a staircase in a turret that quickly became famous, but preferred to reside in the Hôtel Saint-Paul himself . The aristocracy imitated him, and Paris sees the court, which at the time of Philip the Fair was still grouped around the Louvre, spread across the city.

Little of it has survived. The residences of kings or princes have been completely destroyed, including above all:

  • the Hôtel Saint-Paul , where Charles V withdrew from the attacks of the Parisians
  • the Hôtel des Tournelles , where Isabeau (1370–1435), John of Lancaster (1389–1435), Charles VII (1403–1461) and Louis XI. (1423–1483) lived,
  • the Hôtel de Nesle on the Tour de Nesle , whose gardens were no less than those of the Hôtel Saint-Paul and where the Duke Johann von Berry - who owned six hotels in Paris - kept a large part of his collections in the 1400s.
  • the Hôtel de Bourbon and the Hôtel d'Alençon, which stood adjacent between the parish church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois and the old Louvre
  • the Hôtel du Roi de Sicile at the eastern end of the Rue du Roi de Sicile (meaning the members of the House of Anjou )
  • the Hôtel de Flandre, which stood in the area southeast of the Place des Victoires
  • the Hôtel Barbette on the Tour Barbette
  • the Hôtel de Bohème of the Bohemian King (this is where the Bourse du Commerce et de l'Industrie now stands west of the Jardin du Forum des Halles)

There are still leftovers from

  • Hôtel de Bourgogne (a tower on Rue Étienne-Marcel) and from
  • Hôtel de Clisson in the Rue des Archives consisting of a gate between two turrets, which now serves as a side entrance to the Hôtel de Soubise .

Only two hotels have survived:

Examples of the bourgeois buildings of this period from the 14th century exist, especially in Rue François-Miron 11 and 13 in the 4th arrondissement . The Auberge Nicolas Flamel at 51 rue de Montmorency ( 3rd arrondissement ) dates back to 1407. The oldest house in the city dates from the 13th century and is at 3 rue Volta (also 3rd arrondissement).

  • Hotel de Bourgogne

  • Hotel de Clisson

  • Hotel de Sens

  • Hotel de Cluny

  • Rue François Miron 11 and 13

  • Rue Volta 3

  • Auberge Nicolas Flamel, Rue de Montmorency 51

Churches and monasteries

In the 15th century, Paris was a city dominated by church towers dominated by the towers of Notre-Dame . The cathedral was built in place of a simpler five-aisled church that was already 36 meters long, dates back to the 4th century and was last renovated in the years 1120–1148.

It was Bishop Maurice de Sully who, despite its good condition, saw the maintenance of an old cathedral as incompatible with its status as the cathedral of the capital. And since the new Gothic style was already present at the same time as the Saint-Denis Basilica in Saint-Denis , it was easy for him to decide on a new building.

The new cathedral was to be built a little further to the east, where there was still open space, also to make the entire structure somewhat larger; instead, a forecourt was to remain in front of the facade, which would meet the needs of a capital - this is the reason why the crypt of the old cathedral is now accessible outside the new cathedral under the Parvis Notre-Dame .

The foundation stone was laid in 1163 by Pope Alexander III. (around 1105–1181). The choir was completed in 1177 and consecrated in 1182. The longship was completed in 1196. The towers and the west facade date from the first half of the 13th century, the west portal seems to date from 1210 and the royal gallery was completed in 1220. Under Louis the Saint , the transept was lengthened, the façades of which were built by Jean de Chelles with large rosettes from 1258 and were later completed by Pierre de Montreuil . Finally, the chapels in the apse date from the years 1296 to 1320.

The Sainte-Chapelle is primarily the chapel of the royal palace. But it is also the reliquary of Louis the Saint for the crown of thorns . Erected in a short time without financial problems (1243–1248), it is one of the most homogeneous buildings of the classical Gothic. Two churches are located one above the other, the lower one consists of a large nave with two narrow aisles, the upper one consists of a single hall (20.5 meters long). The upper vault is light enough that the buttresses can take the weight without the buttresses. The recess was extended to its extreme limit, the wall of the upper chapel was almost completely replaced by windows, the panes of which represent one of the most remarkable ensembles in this art. The decor is completed by 12 statues of the apostles, which are now in the Musée national du Moyen Âge ( Hôtel de Cluny ).

There are three important ancient abbeys in Paris, only one of which, the Sainte-Geneviève Abbey, is located within the walls of Philippe Auguste ; the other two ( Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Saint-Victor ) are only in modern times within the city. Two other large abbeys are still outside the city, the Abbey of Saint-Maur and above all the Abbey of Saint-Denis , the necropolis of the royal family.

Sainte-Geneviève (initially Saints-Apôtres-Pierre-et-Paul or Monastery of the Holy Apostles ) is located on a hill that dominates the left bank. It was founded in 511 by King Clovis I , who chose Sainte-Geneviève as his tomb - the first royal necropolis in Paris. Since the city saint Genoveva of Paris († around 502) was also buried here, the complex was named after her in the 9th century. Destroyed by the Normans , it was rebuilt by secular canons. After the new building of the monastery church at the end of the 11th century, the monastery got into a crisis due to an incident, which in the presence of Pope Eugene III. († 1153) happened.

Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis (1081–1151) and the Council of Reims of 1147 settled Augustinians here , who were brought from Saint-Victor for this purpose . The abbey - now called Sainte-Geneviève - had great estates that extended mainly to the south and east of the region. It was the protection of the abbot of Sainte-Geneviève , whose property and jurisdiction covered a third of the left bank, as well as the intellectual prestige that the abbey acquired after the Sugers reforms, which at the end of the 12th century allowed the employment of some well-known teachers and finally allowed the teachers and students to come together around 1200 on the slopes of the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève to form a university that was less dependent on the bishop than the old cathedral school of Notre-Dame. Of the medieval buildings on the current site of the Lycée Henri IV , the refectory (now the Lycée Chapel ) from the mid-12th century and a tower, the Tour Clovis , still exist .

Saint-Germain-des-Prés (initially Sainte-Croix ) was founded on the left bank in the west of the city around 543 by Bishop Germanus of Paris for monks from Saint-Symphorien in Autun . King Childebert I about the relics of Saint Vincent of Valencia († around 304) brought with him to the abbey after the siege of Zaragoza in 524 and chose them as his burial place, making the complex the second royal necropolis. On December 23, 558, the anniversary of Childebert's death, Bishop Germanus of Paris dedicated it to Saint Vincent, so that it was now called Sainte-Croix-et-Saint-Vincent . The abbey was later renamed Saint-Germain after him, who was buried here in 576, but was also dubbed Saint-Germain-le-Doré because of its gold jewelry .

The monastery changed to the Benedictine order, was destroyed several times by the Normans , but was rebuilt again and again - more simply and as Saint-Germain-des-Prés . The abbey's estates were numerous in the Paris region. They were listed in a register known by the name of the abbot who commissioned it: Polyptyque d'Irminon (806–829). Even in the city, the property of Saint-Germain-des-Prés extended on a triangle on the western left bank. The monastery church dates from the 9th century ( Romanesque nave) and 12th century ( Gothic choir ). Pope Alexander III consecrated the altar in 1163, and the new choir certainly dates from that time. Still marked by Carolingian traditions ( apse flanked by towers, around 1005) the Romanesque nave has capitals with decorations (today in the Musée national du Moyen Age ( Hôtel de Cluny )), whose monumental style is characteristic of the 11th century. The Lady Chapel, now destroyed, was built by Pierre de Montreuil , the architect of the side facade of Notre-Dame .

Saint-Victor was founded in 1113 in the southeast of Paris on the left bank of the Bièvre , a left tributary of the Seine, by King Louis VI. and Wilhelm von Champeaux founded. The latter had just given up his function as a scholastic in Notre-Dame and was looking for a little solitude and intellectual freedom in the oratorio that was already established here . The arrival of his students led him to resume teaching and to set up what was to become an Augustinian abbey that quickly became the lead abbey of an order of 30 abbeys and 40 priories , the rule of which was derived from the first abbot, Geudoin.

In addition to these three great abbeys, there are other monasteries to be mentioned:

Saint Germain l'Auxerrois or Saint-Germain-le-Rond , founded in the 6th century by Childebert I , destroyed by the Normans and rebuilt as a Benedictine abbey by Louis the Pious (778-840). The abbey was converted into a monastery in 1165 and later became a parish.

Saint-Eloi , founded in 633 by St. Eligius , adviser to King Dagobert I (608 / 610–638 / 639), was converted into a Benedictine priory in 1107, which belonged to the Abbey of Saint-Maur .

Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre , founded in the 6th century as a hospice and chapel dedicated to Saint-Julien-l'Hospitalier; destroyed by the Normans, converted into a priory subordinate to Cluny Abbey around 1120 . The choir and apse date from 1175, the central nave from the 13th century. The church is located across from Notre-Dame on the Rive gauche in the 5th arrondissement and is considered the oldest church in the city.

Saint-Merry (6th century) became a monastery in the 11th century as the daughter of the cathedral chapter of Notre-Dame . The church is located in the 4th arrondissement on Rue Saint-Martin .

Saint-Magloire , Benedictine abbey (around 975) was converted into a priory of Marmoutier in 1093 .

Notre-Dame-des-Champs , Benedictine priory of Marmoutier (1148), in the 6th arrondissement southwest of the Jardin du Luxembourg .

Saint-Séverin , founded before the 11th century, was converted into a parish in the 12th century. With its star vault and spiral columns ( ambulatory ), the church is one of the Parisian versions of the Baroque in the last years of the Gothic . The church is now called Saint-Séverin-et-Saint-Nicolas , it is located in the Latin Quarter on Rue Saint-Séverin , on Rue de la Harpe between Boulevard Saint-Michel and Rue Saint-Jacques .

La Saussaie , Benedictine Abbey (1161)

The Charterhouse of Vauvert was founded in 1257 by Louis the Saint outside the walls of the city, in today's Jardin du Luxembourg in a building donated by the king; nothing remains of the Charterhouse. The legend of a devil's apparition led to the idioms "au diable Vauvert" and "le diable Vert".

Les Blanc-Manteaux , convent of the Wilhelmites , founded in 1297 to replace the Augustinians , whose order had been dissolved. The name of the white coats comes from their clothing.

The Knights Templar had their house in Paris, the Temple , from around 1130 near Saint-Jean-en-Grève . Pope Eugene III. sat here in 1147 before a chapter of the order . The English King Henry III. (1207–1272) held court here in 1254. A Nouveau Temple behind Saint-Gervais replaced the Vieux Temple , whose donjon is known as the Tour du Pet-au-Diable . The final Commanderie was built from the 12th century in the north of the city, near today's Place de la République . It consisted of a rectangular donjon with a side length of 15 meters, which was converted into a tower with four gun turrets at the end of the 13th century (demolished in 1808), and a round church, which was extended by a nave in the 13th century. The whole thing was framed by a monastery environment, which in turn was surrounded by a wall - space for 4,000 people. The temple became one of the most important banking houses in France, particularly the king's banker - the Trésorier's brother was the king's treasurer. The state treasure remained here until 1295, when it was transferred to the Louvre by Philip the Fair , but returned to the temple in 1303. The temple of Paris took on a new meaning when the order had lost all settlement in the Orient after the fall of Acon in 1291. It was the ordinary residence of the Grand Master . After the arrest of the order leadership and the confiscation of their property in 1307 and the dissolution of the order in 1312, the property of the Templars, including the temple itself, was handed over to the hospitallers . The Temple of Paris became the residence of the Grand Prior of France.

The appearance of the mendicant orders completely changed the religious life of the capital in the 13th century. The most important ones settled on the left bank, the Université , which means nothing more than that the orders were trying to penetrate the university world.

  • The Dominicans had their main convent up on Rue Saint-Jacques , close to but within the city walls. It soon bore the usual name of the Jacobins (see Jacobin Monastery, Paris ).
  • The Franciscans initially sat in Saint-Denis (1217) , then in Vauvert and from 1230 in the city, near the Porte Saint-Germain , and their convent was named after the cord with which the minor brothers girded their habit: the Cordeliers and the Couvent des Cordeliers . There is still a larger refectory from the second half of the 14th century ( Rue de l'École de Médécine ). The two convents quickly assumed the function of schools, with employed teachers releasing the brothers from teaching.
  • The Carmelites reached France on the eve of the crusades of Louis IX. They had their convent since 1318 on the right bank of the Seine, above the Port en Grève , and they were soon called barrés because of the striped fabrics .
  • The Cölestines owned land given to them by Garnier Marcel in 1352, and where they were initially the chaplains of the brotherhood of notaries and secretaries of the king in the nearby Hôtel Saint-Paul . The favor of John the Good and especially Charles V gave them the means to build a large church from 1367, called l'Annonciation or les Célestins , one of the most popular shrines in Paris. The princes of the Orléans branch of the House of Valois ( House of Valois-Orléans ) made it their necropolis , the second largest of the Capetians after the Abbey of Saint-Denis . Today there are no more remains of the Cölestiner convent .
  • The hermits of St. Augustine , temporarily housed around 1260 in the Rue Montmartre and in the Chardonnet , set up their convent around 1293 directly on the left bank of the Seine, opposite the western tip of the Cité; in more modern times one speaks of the Grands Augustins (the street here is now the Quai des Grands Augustins ) to distinguish them from the reformed Petits Augustins .
  • Finally, the Poor Clares , who live in the Couvent de l'Ave Maria , founded in 1480 by Louis XI. on the site of a beguinage founded by Louis the Saint not far from the Barrés .

Many of the schools mentioned were in fact convents or priories whose monks were sent by their order or convent to the University of Paris as teachers or students: the Collège Saint-Bernard or Collège de Cîteaux , called Collège des Bernardins (1244), the Collège Sainte-Anne or Collège de Prémontré (1252), the Collège de Cluny (1261), the Collège de Saint-Denis (1265), the Priory Sainte-Catherine-du-Val-des-Écoliers of the Augustinian order Écoliers du Christ (1229).

In addition, there are charitable houses, hospices and hospitals:

  • the Hôtel-Dieu , attested since 829, but perhaps two centuries older - its foundation is attributed to Bishop Landry; It was the only building in the city that stretched over two sides of the river: it was located both in the Latin Quarter and on the Île de la Cité, directly west of Notre-Dame, and was redesigned in 1865 by Baron Haussmann relocated to the city as Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu on the other side of Parvis Notre-Dame. The only thing that remains of the huge complex is the connecting bridge over the Seine, the Pont au Double .
  • Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas (12th century),
  • the Quinze-Vingts , 15 times 20 , founded by Louis the Saint around 1269, outside the Porte Saint-Honoré , for 15 times 20 equal to 300 blind people
  • the Filles-Dieu , before 1270
  • the Haudriettes , founded around 1306 by Étienne Haudry,
  • the Panetier (the court official responsible for the bread at the manorial table) of Philip the Good , in the east of the Place de Grève ,
  • the Merci , founded in 1348 by Arnoul Braque.

At some distance from the city are the abbeys or priories

as well as of course

The city emancipates itself from royalty

The last years of the 14th century, in which the festivals of Isabeau (1370–1435) and her brother-in-law Ludwig von Orléans (1372–1407) incited the taxpaying citizens to be understood in the 1430s, in which the English presence as a foreign occupation, Paris stood on the side of the Bourguignons (see civil war of the Armagnacs and Bourguignons ): citizens and university members mostly supported the positions of a nobleman, Johann Ohnefurcht (1371-1419), Duke of Burgundy , who after the death of his father in 1404 by his cousin, Duke Louis of Orléans, who was kept out of power in the kingdom; The Burgundian demands that his Orleanist competition curb extravagance, and at the same time, as Lord of Flanders, is interested in flourishing economic relations with the Parisian market. Not without demagogic means - bribes for the butchers, for example - and not without flattery towards the university members, who are happy to be able to play a political role that they intend to play since their intervention during the Western Schism , sits Johann von Burgund in 1412, the head of the Bourguignons firmly in the saddle in the city of Paris. The Paris of the nobility and clergy and that of the common people supported the reform policy of the Estates General in 1413 while the leaders of the Mouvement cabochien dominated the street. The defeat of the Cabochiens after the moderates braced themselves against them prompted the Armagnacs ' reaction , which established terror in Paris.

The repression of the Armagnacs, then the exile or flight of their followers in 1418 after the return of the Bourguignons and the bloody mass riots that followed, only strengthened the ties of the Parisians to the camp of the Duke of Burgundy, who alone was considered capable of restoring peace and prosperity. Paris had long-term and stable economic relations with the north, Normandy and Burgundy, but not with the south, Aquitaine , Berry or Languedoc .

The English rule in northern France (and thus also in Paris), the John of Lancaster (1389–1435), who was the regent for the underage English King Henry VI. (1421–1471) in France 1422–1435, established, does not change the partisanship of the Parisians for Burgundy. (It is in any case questionable whether the presence of the English in the city represents an occupation , considering that John Fastolf, the commandant of the Bastille and thus the military commander of the city at that time, never had more than eight armed men and 17 archers which indicates about 300 English soldiers in a city of - despite the crisis - about 80,000 inhabitants). In any case, Joan of Arc's appearance in front of the Porte Sainte Honoré (which at that time was about at the level of the Comédie-Française ) did not lead to English reactions, but to French ones: it was one of her compatriots who insulted her, and a resident of the city who wounded himself with his crossbow.

The majority opinion in the city only changed when it became clear that the Burgundians were unable to end the war and with it the economic crisis. The successes of Joan of Arc and Charles VII took care of the rest. The city understood that peace could only be achieved with the withdrawal of the English. Charles VII and his ongoing forays into the north create permanent insecurity at the gates of the city. Thanks to a gate opened by the Parisians (the Porte Saint-Jacques ), the army of Connétable de Richemont (who later became Duke Arthur III of Brittany (1393-1458)) marched into the city on April 13, 1436.

Charles VII had to wait until November of the coming year 1437 before he could enter his capital. During this time he stayed in Bourges , Loches and Chinon . His parliament was in Poitiers when the university withdrew from Paris. His Court of Auditors ( Chambre des comptes ) was in Bourges. In Paris, on the other hand, where there was no king, but where royal administration still existed, Bedford had not touched the central structures of the king. The function as capital continued for half of the empire, but neither the English nor the French king was seen in the city. Henry VI. only came to the city for a few days for his anointing in December 1431, and Charles VII rarely returned to the city after November 1437. And his son Louis XI. does the same, doesn't even sleep in town on the night of his first visit. It is therefore not surprising that the General Estates of the 15th century meet in Orléans or Tours , and when the assembly of the clergy that passed the Pragmatic Sanction in 1438 meets in Bourges.

The bond between the king and his capital was thus completely cut in the 1410s. The Civil War removed the Armagnacs and then the Bourguignons from Paris in 1413, and the Armagnacs again in 1418. Xenophobia mixed in with it, which the Italian merchants, who had turned a little too quickly into simple usurers, regarded as speculators and treated them as Philip Augustus and Saint Louis treated the Jews at the time . In such a climate, outstanding debts quickly become doubtful. Disappointed with the Duke of Burgundy, who forgot them, and Charles VII, who obviously mistrusted them, they were not among those who found a way to reconcile. When the Ligue du Bien public came together in 1465 , the Prévôt des marchands Henri de Livres refused to open the gates of the city to them.

Paris remained the capital, but was no longer the city of the king. It was the required center for all kingdom affairs. Wherever the king and his court were, in Paris the barons and the cities had their lawyers. Justice and administration became the central machinery of the monarchy - and that was in Paris, which was now the capital, even when the king is absent.

literature

  • Jean Favier , Dictionnaire de la France médiévale, keyword Paris
  • Lexicon of the Middle Ages , Volume VI, keyword Paris
  • Nouvelle histoire de Paris:
    • Jacques Boussard, De la fin du siège de 885-886 à la mort de Philippe Auguste, 1976
    • Raymond Cazelles , De la fin du règne de Philippe Auguste à la mort de Charles V (1223-1380), 1972
    • Jean Favier, Paris au XVe siècle, 1380–1500, 1974
    • Jean-Pierre Babelon, Paris au XVIe siècle, 1986