Places, museums, monuments : 61
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Place, museum or monumentButtes-Chaumont Park
It was on the immense 62.5-acre (25-hectare) stretch of wasteland between Belleville and La Villette that Haussmann and Alphand chose to construct one of the most extraordinary Parisian parks of the Second Empire, the “Parc de Buttes-Chaumont”. The name, derived from a contraction of the French words Monts chauves (bald hills), aptly describes the bare […]
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Place, museum or monumentTrinité Church
The decision to build the Trinité church was made in the Assemblée on the 22nd September 1855. The church, built in a neighbourhood turned upside-down by Haussmann's reconstruction of central Paris, was designed by the architect Théodore Ballu and building work lasted from 1861 to 1867. In fact, the clearing of the present-day place d'Estienne-d'Orves, […]
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Place, museum or monumentSaint Augustin Church
During the second Empire, this neighbourhood, known as 'little Poland', underwent significant redevelopment following construction work by Haussmann – broad straight avenues were laid out and people flocked to live in the new houses built there, greatly increasing the population. A parish was therefore established and a church built, and great care was taken that […]
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Place, museum or monumentMontsouris Park
It was as a result of Napoleon III's policy of creating, in Paris, urban green space at the four points of the compass that the Montsouris park was built on the plain of the same name between 1867 and 1878. The name Montsouris is a corruption of the word Moquesouris (mouse mocker), the ancient name […]
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Place, museum or monumentMonceau Park
In 1860, the old village of Monceau (or Mousseaux) near Paris was annexed to the capital along with eleven other communes. The Monceau plain, which in those days was an immense wasteland, bordered on its outer sides by the Fermiers généraux farmland, was soon to become a giant housing development – not even “la Folie […]
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Place, museum or monumentMusée de l’Histoire de France – National Archive
The Museum of the History of France was created in 1867 by Napoleon III as a means of presenting to the public the most interesting and the most prestigious documents held in the National Archive. The National Archive itself was a creation of the Revolution but it was not until Napoleon 1st took a hand […]
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Place, museum or monumentChâteau de Pierrefonds
This enormous fortress constructed in the 14th century by Louis d'Orléans, the brother of Charles VI, the Château de Pierrefonds, was besieged and then torn down by Louis XIII at the beginning of the 17th century. For almost two centuries the imposing ruins stood unattended – nearly unnoticed. It was not until the end of […]
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Place, museum or monumentPalais Galliera – Costume and Fashion Museum
Founded in 1977 in the Galliera Palace, the Costume and Fashion Museum contains an exceptional collection of about 100,000 items: 30,000 costumes and 70,000 accessories. The museum displays male as well as female clothing. Amongst the women's garments there are some truly extraordinary items dating from the First Empire, notably: muslin dresses belonging to Josephine, […]
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Place, museum or monumentVendôme Column
“The city of Paris has a great mast, made entirely of bronze, with sculpted Victories and Napoleon as its lookout”. Such were Balzac’s words on the Vendôme column, the obelisk which throughout the 19th century was seen as the most important symbol of Paris and upon which each government attempted to make its mark. Its […]
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Place, museum or monumentMuseum of the History of Medicine – Paris
The neoclassical Collège et Académie de Chirurgie (College and Academy of Surgery) by the architect Gondoin was built in the old Rue des Cordeliers over the years 1769-1775. The rival establishment, the Faculté de Médecine, stood on the Rue de la Bûcherie. After the suppression of the academies and the closure of the faculties in […]