Aspect de Paris

Title

Aspect de Paris

Description

Decorative bird ´s eye view of Paris with a hot-air ballon, title cartouche decorated with coat of arms.

ca. 1845

Artist

Guesnu

Historical Description

The ancient name of the city was Lutetia (also: Lutezia). Lutetia developed since the middle of the 3rd century BC from the Celtic settlement Lutetia of the Parisii tribe on the Seine island, which today is called île de la Cité. The city became known in the Roman Empire as Civitas Parisiorum or Parisia, but initially remained quite insignificant in occupied Gaul. In the 4th century, the present name of the city prevailed. In the 5th century, Roman rule was ended by the Merovingians. In 508 Paris became the capital of the Merovingian Empire under Clovis I (466-511). The Capetians made Paris the capital of France. Philip II. Augustus (1165-1223) had the city fortified. In 1190 a wall was built on the right bank of the Seine and in 1210 a rampart on the left bank. The Sorbonne in the south of Paris developed from several small schools.During the Huguenot Wars between 1562 and 1598, the city remained in Catholic possession. Thousands of Huguenots were murdered in Paris on the Night of St. Bartholomew in August 1572. At the instigation of Louis XIV (1638-1715), street lights were installed and the water supply was modernized. Paris remained the political center of France, due to its large population and its leading economic role in the country. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, it was the population of Paris that paved the way for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the first French Republic. Paris hosted six world expositions in 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, 1900 and 1937, which underlined the cultural and political importance of the city. During the Second Empire, under the Prefect of Paris Haussmann, major transformations of the city took place, which still characterize the cityscape today. Paris experienced an economic and cultural heyday during the Belle Époque period of the Third Republic before 1914. In 1921, Paris reached a population of around 2.9 million, the highest in its history to this day.