PARIS is =not=, like Rome, London, Lyons, =an inevitable city=. It
does not owe its distinctive place, like New York, Chicago, San
Francisco, Melbourne, to natural position alone. Rather does it resemble
Madrid or Berlin in being in great part of artificial administrative
origin. It stands, no doubt, upon an important navigable river, the
Seine; but its position upon that river, though near the head of
navigation, when judged by the standard of early times, is not exactly
necessary or commanding. Rouen in mediæval days, Havre at the present
moment, are the real ports of the Seine. The site of Paris is in itself
nothing more than one among the many little groups of willow-clad
alluvial islets which are frequent along the upper reaches of the river.
The modern city owes its special development as a town, first to its
Roman conquerors, then to its bridges, next to its mediæval counts, last
of all to the series of special accidents by which those counts
developed at last into kings of the nascent kingdom of France, and
inheritors of the traditions of the Frankish sovereigns. It is thus in
large part a royal residential town, depending mainly for prosperity
upon its kings, its nobles, its courts of justice, its parliaments, its
university, its clergy, and its official classes; comparatively little,
till quite recent times, upon the energy and industry of its individual
citizens. We say, as a rule, that Paris is the capital of France; it
would be truer to say that France is the country which has grouped
itself under the rulers of Paris.
The name itself points back to the antiquity of some human aggregation
upon this particular spot. It is =the name of a tribe=, _not_ that of
their capital. The Parisii were a Celtic people of comparatively small
importance, who occupied the banks of the Seine at the period of the
Roman conquest. Their town or stronghold, Lutetia, called distinctively
Lutetia Parisiorum (Lutetia of the Parisii), was situated, says Cæsar,
“in an island of the river Sequana”—the same which is now called the
Île de la Cité. Two adjacent islands of the same alluvial type have long
since coalesced to form the Île St. Louis; a fourth, the Île Louviers,
is at present enclosed in the mainland of the northern bank by the
modern quays.
This =stockaded island village= of the Parisii was conquered by the
Romans in B.C. 53. Under Roman rule, it remained at first an unimportant
place, the really large towns of Gaul at that time being Arles, Nîmes,
Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Lyons. In the north, Treviri was the chief
Roman settlement. Towards the end of the Roman period, however, Paris
seems to have increased in importance, and overflowed a little from the
island to the south bank. The town owed its rapid rise, no doubt, to the
two Roman bridges which here crossed the two branches of the Seine,
probably on the same sites as the modern Petit-Pont and Pont Notre-Dame.
The river formed its highway. Constantius Chlorus, who lived in Gaul
from A.D. 292 to 306, is supposed to have built in the faubourg on the
south side the palace of the Thermes, which now forms a part of the
Museum of Cluny. Julian certainly inhabited that palace in 360. The town
was known as Lutetia almost as long as the Roman power lasted; but after
the Frankish invasion (and even in late Roman times), the name of the
tribe superseded that of the ancient fortress: Lutetia became known as
Paris, the stronghold of the Parisii, just in the same way as the
Turones gave their name to Tours, the Ambiani to Amiens, and the Senones
to Sens.
After the occupation of Gaul by Clovis (Hlodwig), Paris sank for a time
to the position of =a mere provincial town=. The Merwing (or
Merovingian) kings, the successors of Clovis, resided as a rule at
Orleans or Soissons. The Frankish emperors and kings of the line of
Charlemagne, again (the Karlings or Carlovingians), held their court for
the most part at Aix-la-Chapelle. The town by the Seine was so
completely neglected under later sovereigns of the Karling line (who
were practically Germans), that during the invasions of the Northmen
from 841 to 885 it was left entirely to its own resources. But its
count, Eudes, defended it so bravely from the northern pirates, that he
became the real founder of the French State, the first inaugurator of
France as a separate country, distinct from the Empire. His provincial
city grew into the kernel of a mediæval monarchy. From his time on,
Paris emerges as the capital of a struggling kingdom, small in extent at
first, but gradually growing till it attained the size which it now
possesses. The Teutonic King of the Franks was reduced for a time to the
rocky fortress of Laon; the =Count of Paris= became Duke of the French,
and then =King of France= in the modern acceptation.
As the kingdom grew (absorbing by degrees Flanders, Normandy, Aquitaine,
Provence, Champagne, and Burgundy), the capital grew with it; its limits
at various times will be more fully described in succeeding pages. From
first to last, however, Paris preserved its character as rather the
official and administrative centre than the commercial emporium.
Nevertheless, even under the Romans, its symbol was a ship. Its double
debt to the river and the monarchy is well symbolised by its mediæval
coat of arms, which consists of a vessel under full sail, surmounted by
the _fleur de lis_ of the French kings, and crested above by a mural
crown.
So few remnants of =Roman Paris= exist at our day, that we will begin
our survey with the =Île de la Cité=, the nucleus of the mediæval town,
leaving the scanty earlier relics to be noted later on in their proper
places. But before we proceed to this detailed description, two other
facts of prime importance in the history of old Paris must be briefly
mentioned, because without them the character of the most ancient
buildings in the city cannot be properly understood. These two
facts—even if mythical, yet facts none the less—are the histories of
the two great patron saints of the early burghers. It is not too much to
say that to the mediæval Parisian, Paris appeared far less as the home
of the kings or the capital of the kingdom than as the =shrine of St.
Denis= and the =city of Ste. Geneviève=.
Universal tradition relates that =St. Denis= was the first preacher of
Christianity in Paris. He is said to have suffered martyrdom there in
the year 270. As the apostle and evangelist of the town, he was deeply
venerated from the earliest times; but later legend immensely increased
his vogue and his sanctity. On the one hand, he was identified with
Dionysius the Areopagite; on the other hand, he was said to have walked
after his decapitation, bearing his head in his hand, from his place of
martyrdom on the hill of Montmartre (Mons Martyrum), near the site from
which the brand-new church of the Sacré-Cœur now overlooks the vastly
greater modern city, to a spot two miles away, where a pious lady buried
him. On this spot, a chapel is said to have been erected as early as
A.D. 275, within five years of his martyrdom; later, Ste. Geneviève,
assisted by the people of Paris, raised a church over his remains on the
same site. In the reign of King Dagobert, the sacred body was removed to
the =Abbey of St. Denis= (see later), which became the last
resting-place of the kings of France. It is probable that the legend of
the saint having carried his head from Montmartre arose from a
misunderstanding of images of the decapitated bishop, bearing his
severed head in his hands as a symbol of the mode of his martyrdom; but
the tale was universally accepted as true in mediæval days, and is still
so accepted by devout Parisians. Images of St. Denis, in episcopal
robes, carrying his mitred head in his hands, may be looked for on all
the ancient buildings of the city. St. Denis thus represents the
earliest patron saint of Paris—the saint of the primitive Church and of
the period of persecution.
The second patron saint of the city—the saint of the Frankish
conquest—is locally and artistically even more important. Like Jeanne
d’Arc, she touches the strong French sentiment of patriotism. =Ste.
Geneviève=, a peasant girl of Nanterre (on the outskirts of Paris), was
born in 421, during the stormy times of the barbarian irruptions. When
she was seven years old, St. Germain, of Auxerre (of whom more will be
said under the church of St. Germain l’Auxerrois), on his way to
Britain, saw _la pucellette Geneviève_, and became aware, by divine
premonition, of her predestined glory. When she had grown to woman’s
estate, and was a shepherdess at Nanterre, a barbarian leader
(identified in the legend with Attila, King of the Huns) threatened to
lay siege to the little city. But Geneviève, warned of God, addressed
the people, begging them not to leave their homes, and assuring them of
the miraculous protection of heaven. And indeed, as it turned out, the
barbarians, without any obvious reason, changed their line of march, and
avoided Paris. Again, when Childeric, the father of Clovis, invested the
city, the people suffered greatly from sickness and famine. Then
Geneviève took command of the boats which were sent up stream to Troyes
for succour, stilled by her prayers the frequent tempests, and brought
the ships back laden with provisions. After the Franks had captured
Paris, Ste. Geneviève carried on Roman traditions into the Frankish
court; she was instrumental in converting Clovis and his wife Clotilde;
and when she died, at eighty-nine, a natural death, she was buried by
the side of her illustrious disciples. The history of her body will be
given at length when we come to examine her church on the South Side,
commonly called the Panthéon; but her image may frequently be recognised
on early buildings by the figure of a devil at her side, endeavouring in
vain (as was his wont) to extinguish her lighted taper—the taper, no
doubt, of Roman Christianity, which she did not allow to be quenched by
the Frankish invaders.
Round these two sacred personages the whole art and history of early
Paris continually cluster. The beautiful figure of the simple peasant
enthusiast, Ste. Geneviève, in particular, has largely coloured Parisian
ideas and Parisian sympathies. Her shrine still attracts countless
thousands of the faithful.
Having premised these facts, we are now in a position to commence our
survey of the city. I strongly recommend the reader to visit the various
objects of interest in the exact order here prescribed. Otherwise, he
will not understand the various allusions to points already elucidated.
But no necessary organic connection exists between the =collections of
the Louvre= and the town in which they are housed. Therefore, they may
be visited off and on at any time (see Introduction to the Collections
in Part III). =Utilize rainy days in the Galleries of the Louvre.=
I
THE ÎLE DE LA CITÉ
[THE Île de la Cité, the oldest Paris, consisted in the Middle
Ages of a labyrinth of narrow and tortuous lanes, now entirely
replaced by large and stately modern official buildings. In
Roman and Frankish times, it comprised the whole of the town,
save a small suburb extending as far as the present Museum of
Cluny, on the South Side. Among its sunless alleys, however, in
later mediæval days, numerous churches raised their heads, of
which =Notre-Dame= and the =Sainte Chapelle= alone now remain;
while others, dedicated to the oldest local saints, such as Ste.
Geneviève-des-Ardents, St. Éloy, and St. Germain-le-Vieux, have
been entirely destroyed. The west extremity of the island was
formerly occupied by the old =Royal Palace=, parts of which
still survive, included in the buildings of the modern =Palais
de Justice=. On the east end stood the cathedral of Notre-Dame,
with the episcopal palace in its rear; while, close by, rose the
earliest hospital in Europe, the Hôtel-Dieu, said to have been
originally founded by Clovis, and now represented by a vastly
larger modern building on a different site. As the burgesses
began to shift their homes to the quarters north of the Seine,
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Cité was gradually
given over to the clergy. The kings also removed from the Palace
of the Capets to their new residences on the North Bank
(Bastille, Hôtel Saint-Paul, old castle of the Louvre), and gave
up their island mansion to the Parlement or Supreme Court, since
which time it has been commonly known as the =Palais de
Justice=, and extensively modernised. At the present day, the
Cité has become the head-quarters of Law, Police, and Religion,
and is almost entirely occupied by huge official structures,
which cover enormous areas, and largely conceal its primitive
character. It still contains, however, the most precious
mediæval monuments of Paris.
At least =two days= should be devoted to the Île de la Cité; one
to the Palace and the Sainte Chapelle, another to the Cathedral.
Do not attempt to see them both together.]
A. THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE AND THE
SAINTE CHAPELLE
Go along the Rue de Rivoli as far as the Square of the Tour St. Jacques.
If driving, alight here. Turn down the Place du Châtelet to your right.
In front is the pretty modern fountain of the Châtelet: right, the
Théâtre du Châtelet; left, the Opéra Comique. The bridge which faces you
is the Pont-au-Change, so-called from the money-changers’ and jewellers’
booths which once flanked its wooden predecessor (the oldest in Paris),
as they still do the Rialto at Venice, and the Ponte Vecchio at
Florence.
Stand by the right-hand corner of the bridge before crossing it. In
front is the Île de la Cité. The square, dome-crowned building opposite
you to the left is the modern Tribunal de Commerce; beyond it leftward
lie the Marché-aux-Fleurs and the long line of the Hôtel-Dieu, above
which rise the towers and spire of Notre-Dame. In front, to the right,
the vast block of buildings broken by towers forms part of the Palais de
Justice, the ancient =Palace of the French kings=, begun by Hugues
Capet. The square tower to the left in this block is the Tour de
l’Horloge. Next, to the right, come the two round towers of the
Conciergerie, known respectively as the Tour de César and the Tour de
Montgomery. The one beyond them, with battlements, is the Tour d’Argent.
It was in the Conciergerie that Marie Antoinette, Robespierre, and many
other victims of the Revolution were imprisoned.
These mediæval towers, much altered and modernized, are now almost all
that remains of the old Palace, which, till after the reign of Louis IX
(St. Louis), formed the residence of the Kings of France. Charles VII
gave it in 1431 to the Parlement or Supreme Court. Ruined by fires and
rebuilding, it now consists for the most part of masses of irregular
recent edifices. The main modern façade fronts the Boulevard du Palais.
Cross the bridge. The Tour de l’Horloge on your right, at the corner of
the Boulevard du Palais, contains the oldest public clock in France
(1370). The figures of Justice and Piety by its side were originally
designed by Germain Pilon, but are now replaced by copies. Walk round
the Palais by the quay along the north branch of the Seine till you come
to the Rue de Harlay. Turn there to your left, towards the handsome and
imposing modern façade of this side of the Palais de Justice. The
interior is unworthy a visit. The Rue de Harlay forms the westernmost
end of the original Île de la Cité. The prow-shaped extremity of the
modern island has been artificially produced by embanking the sites of
two or three minor islets. The Place Dauphine, which occupies the
greater part of this modern extension, was built in 1608; it still
affords a characteristic example of the domestic Paris of the period
before Baron Haussmann. Continue along the quay as far as the Pont-Neuf,
so as to gain an idea of the extent of the Île de la Cité in this
direction. The centre of the Pont-Neuf is occupied by an equestrian
statue of Henri IV, first of the Bourbon kings. Its predecessor was
erected in 1635, and was destroyed to make cannon during the great
Revolution. Louis XVIII re-erected it. From this point you can gain a
clear idea of the two branches of the Seine as they unite at the lower
end of the Île de la Cité. To your right, looking westward, you also
obtain a fine view of the Colonnade of the Old Louvre, with the
southwestern gallery, and the more modern buildings of the Museum behind
it. (See later.)
Now, walk along the southern quay of the island, round the remainder of
the Palais de Justice, as far as the Boulevard du Palais. There turn to
your left, and go in at the first door of the Palace on the left
(undeterred by sentries) into the court of =the Sainte Chapelle=, the
only important relic now remaining of the home of Saint Louis. You may
safely neglect the remainder of the building.
* * * * *
[The thirteenth century (age of the Crusades) was a period of
profound religious enthusiasm throughout Europe. Conspicuous
among its devout soldiers was Louis IX, afterwards canonized as
=St. Louis=. The saintly king purchased from Baldwin, Emperor of
Constantinople, the veritable =Crown of Thorns=, and a fragment
of the =True Cross=—paying for these relics an immense sum of
money. Having become possessed of such invaluable and sacred
objects, Louis desired to have them housed with suitable
magnificence. He therefore entrusted one Pierre de Montereau
with the task of building a splendid chapel (within the
precincts of his palace), begun in 1245, and finished three
years later, immediately after which the king set out on his
Crusade. The monument thus breathes throughout the ecstatic
piety of the mystic king; it was consecrated in 1248, in the
name of the Holy Crown and the Holy Cross, by Eudes de
Châteauroux, Bishop of Tusculum and papal legate.
Three things should be noted about the Sainte Chapelle. (1) It
is a =chapel=, not a church; therefore it consists (practically)
of a choir alone, without nave or transepts. (2) It is the
=domestic Chapel of the Royal Palace=. (3) It is, above all
things, the =Shrine of the Crown of Thorns=. These three points
must be constantly borne in mind in examining the building.
Erected later than Notre-Dame, it represents the pointed style
of the middle of the thirteenth century, and is singularly pure
and uniform throughout. Secularized at the Revolution, it fell
somewhat into decay; but was judiciously restored by
Viollet-le-Duc and others. The “Messe Rouge,” or “Messe du St.
Esprit,” is still celebrated here once yearly, on the re-opening
of the courts after the autumn vacation, but no other religious
services take place in the building. The Crown of Thorns and the
piece of the True Cross are now preserved in the Treasury at
Notre-Dame.
Open daily, free, except Mondays, 11 to 4 or 5. Choose =a very
bright day= to visit it.]
Examine the =exterior= in detail from the court on the south side. More
even than most Gothic buildings, the Sainte Chapelle is supported
entirely by its massive piers, the wall being merely used for enclosure,
and consisting for the most part of lofty windows. As in most French
Gothic buildings, the choir terminates in a round apse, whereas English
cathedrals have usually a square end. The beautiful light =flèche= or
spire in the centre has been restored. Observe the graceful leaden
angel, holding a cross, on the summit of the _chevet_ or round apse. To
see =the façade=, stand well back opposite it, when you can observe that
the chapel is built in four main stories,—those, namely, of the Lower
Church or crypt, of the Upper Church, of the great rose window (with
later flamboyant tracery), and of the gable-end, partially masked by an
open parapet studded with the royal fleurs-de-lis of France. The Crown
of Thorns surrounds the two pinnacles which flank the fourth story.
The chapel consists of a lower and an upper church. The =Lower Church=
is a mere crypt, which was employed for the servants of the royal
family. Its portal has in its tympanum (or triangular space in the
summit of the arch) the Coronation of the Virgin, and on its centre
pillar a good figure of the Madonna and Child. Enter the Lower Church.
It is low, and has pillars supporting the floor above. In the
polychromatic decoration of the walls and pillars, notice the frequent
repetition of the royal lilies of France, combined with the three
castles of Castille, in honour of Blanche of Castille, the mother of St.
Louis.
Mount to =**the Upper Chapel= (or Sainte Chapelle proper) by the small
spiral staircase in the corner. This soaring pile was the oratory where
the royal family and court attended service; its gorgeousness bespeaks
its origin and nature. It glows like a jewel. First go out of the door
and examine the =exterior and doorway= of the chapel. Its platform was
directly approached in early times from the Palace. The centre pillar
bears a fine figure of Christ. In the tympanum (as over the principal
doorway of almost every important church in Paris and the district) is a
relief of the Last Judgment. Below stands St. Michael with his scales,
weighing the souls; on either side is depicted the Resurrection, with
the Angels of the Last Trump. Above, in the second tier, is Christ,
holding up His hands with the marks of the nails, as a sign of mercy to
the redeemed: to R and L of Him angels display the Crown of Thorns and
the True Cross, to contain which sacred relics the chapel was built.
Extreme L kneels the Blessed Virgin; extreme R, Sainte Geneviève. This
scene of the Last Judgment was adapted with a few alterations from that
above the central west door of Notre-Dame, the Crown of Thorns in
particular being here significantly substituted for the three nails and
spear. The small lozenge reliefs to R and L of the portal are also
interesting. Those to the L represent in a very naïve manner God the
Father creating the world, sun and moon, light, plants, animals, man,
etc. Those to the R give the story of Genesis, Cain and Abel, the Flood,
the Ark, Noah’s Sacrifice, Noah’s Vine, etc. the subjects of all which
the visitor can easily recognise, and is strongly recommended to
identify for himself.
The =interior= consists almost entirely of large and lofty windows, with
magnificent stained glass, in large part ancient. The piers which divide
the windows and alone support the graceful vault of the roof, are
provided with statues of the twelve apostles, a few of them original.
Each bears his well-known symbol. Spell them out if possible. Beneath
the windows, in the quatrefoils of the arcade, are enamelled glass
mosaics representing the martyrdoms of the saints—followers of Christ,
each wearing his own crown of thorns: a pretty conceit wholly in accord
with St. Louis’s ecstatic type of piety. Conspicuous among them are St.
Denis carrying his head, St. Sebastian pierced with arrows, St. Stephen
stoned, St. Lawrence on his gridiron, etc. Examine and identify each
separately. The apse (formerly separated from the body of the building
by a rood-screen, now destroyed) contains the vacant base of the high
altar, behind which stands an arcaded tabernacle, now empty, in whose
shrine were once preserved the Crown of Thorns, the fragment of the True
Cross, and other relics. Amongst them in later times was included the
skull of St. Louis himself in a golden reliquary. Two angels at the
summit of the large centre arch of the arcade bear a representation of
the Crown of Thorns in their hands. Above the tabernacle rises a canopy
or baldacchino, approached by two spiral staircases; from its platform
St. Louis and his successors, the kings of France, were in the habit of
exhibiting with their own hands the actual relics themselves once a year
to the faithful. The golden reliquary in which the sacred objects were
contained was melted down in the Revolution. The small window with bars
to your R, as you face the high altar, was placed there by the
superstitious and timid Louis XI, in order that he might behold the
elevation of the Host and the sacred relics without being exposed to the
danger of assassination. The visitor should also notice the inlaid stone
pavement, with its frequent repetition of the fleur-de-lis and the three
castles. The whole breathes the mysticism of St. Louis: the lightness of
the architecture, the height of the apparently unsupported roof, and the
magnificence of the decoration, render this the most perfect
ecclesiastical building in Paris.
In returning from the chapel, notice on the outside, from the court to
the S., the apparently empty and useless porch, supporting a small room,
which is the one through whose grated window Louis XI used to watch the
elevation.
I would recommend the visitor on his way home from this excursion to
walk round the remainder of the Île de la Cité in the direction of
Notre-Dame, so as to gain a clear idea of the extent of the island,
without, however, endeavouring to examine the cathedral in detail on
this occasion.
Vary your artistic investigations by afternoons in the Bois de Boulogne,
Champs Elysées, etc.