ON THE _BUTTE_
ARRONDISSEMENT XVIII. (BUTTE MONTMARTRE)
We are on supremely interesting ground here, ground at once sacred,
historic and characteristic of the mundane life of the city above which
it stands. At or near its summit, St-Denis and his two companions were
put to death in the early days of Christianity. On the hill-side most
memorable happenings have been lived through. In the old streets and
houses up and down its slopes poets and artists have ever dwelt, worked
and played, and in its theatres, its music-halls, cabarets, etc.,
Parisians of all classes have sought amusement--good and evil. In past
days Paris depended on Montmartre for its daily bread, for the flour
that made it was ground by the innumerable windmills of the _Butte_. The
sails of many of those windmills worked far into the reign of Napoléon
III, who did not admire their aspect and even had a scheme for levelling
the _Butte_! So it is said. Reaching the arrondissement by the Rue des
Martyrs, which begins, as we know, in arrondissement IX, we come upon
two buildings side by side of very opposite uses: the Comédie Mondaine,
formerly the famous Brasserie des Martyrs and Divan Japonais, and the
Asile Nationale de la Providence, an institution founded in 1804 as a
retreat for aged and fallen gentlepeople.
The _hôtel_ at No. 79 is on the site of the Château d’hiver, where the
Revolutionists of Montmartre had their club. No. 88 was the
dancing-saloon known as the Bossu. No. 76 that of the Marronniers. Rue
Antoinette shows us points of interest of another nature. At No. 9, in
the couvent des Dames Auxiliatrices du Purgatoire, we see the very spot
on which there is reason to believe St. Denis and his companions
suffered martyrdom. An ancient crypt is there, unearthed in the year
1611, to which we are led down rough steps, beneath a chapel built on
the site in 1887; we see a rude altar and above it words in Latin to the
effect that St-Denis had invoked the name of the Holy Trinity on that
spot. The crypt is no doubt a vestige of the chapel built on the site by
Ste-Geneviève. It was in this chapel, not as is sometimes asserted
higher up the _Butte_, that Ignatius Loyola and his six companions, on
August 15, 1574, made the solemn vow which resulted in the institution
of the Order of the Jesuits. The chapel was under the jurisdiction of
the “Dames de Montmartre,” and after the great fire at the abbey the
nuns sought refuge in the old chapel here, made it a priory. Several
persons of note were buried there. At the Revolution it was knocked to
pieces and remained a ruin until rebuilt by the abbé Rebours in 1887.
Leaving this interesting spot and passing through Rue Tardieu, we reach
Place St-Pierre, formerly known as Place Piemontési, and go on through
Rue Foyatier to the ancient Rue St-Eleuthère, once in part of its length
Rue du Pressoire, a name recalling the abbey winepress on the site of
the reservoir we see there now. Thus we come to Rue Mont-Cenis, the
ancient Chaussée St-Denis, and in part of its course, Rue de la
Procession, referring to the religious processions of those bygone days.
And here we see before us the most ancient of Paris churches, St-Pierre
de Montmartre. It dates from the first years of the ninth century, built
on the site of an earlier chapel or several successive chapels, the
first one erected over the ruins of a pagan temple. Four black marble
pillars from the ruins of that temple were used for the Christian
church: we see them there to-day, two at the west door, two in the
chancel. We see there, too, ancient tombstones, one that of Adelaide de
Savoie, foundress of the abbey, for the Choir des Dames was the abbey
chapel, and there the abbesses were buried. The old church was
threatened with destruction after the desecration of 1871, when it was
used as a munition _dépôt_. Happily it has been saved and in recent
years restored. The façade is eighteenth-century work, quite
uninteresting as we see, but the view of the east end from without, the
apse, the old tower and the simply severe Gothic interior, are
strikingly characteristic. The cross we see in front of the church was
brought here from an old cemetery near. The garden adjoining, with the
Calvaire set up there in 1833, was in ancient days the nun’s graveyard.
The cemetery on the northern side dates from the time of the Merovingian
kings.
[Illustration: ST-PIERRE DE MONTMARTRE]
Leaving the most ancient of Paris churches we come to the most
remarkable among the modern churches of Paris and of France--l’Église du
Vœu National, commonly known as the Sacré-Cœur. It is an
impressively historic structure for it was built after the disasters of
1870-71, by “La France humiliée et repentante,” a votive church erected
by national subscription. To make its foundations sure on the summit of
the _Butte_, chosen as being the site of the martyrdom of St-Denis,
patron saint of the city, the hill was probed to its base, almost to the
level of the Seine, and a gigantic foundation of hard rock-like stone
built upwards. The huge edifice rests upon a vast crypt, with chapels
and passages throughout its entire extent. It has taken more than forty
years to build; the north tower was finished just before the outbreak of
the war, now advancing to a triumphal end, for which grand services of
thanksgiving will ere long be held in this church built after defeat.
The interior is still uncompleted. Looking at it from close at hand, the
immense Byzantine structure with its numerous domes, seems to us
æsthetically somewhat unsatisfying, but from a distance dominating
Paris, seen as it often is through a feathery haze, or with the sun
shining on it, the vast white edifice makes an imposing effect. Its
great bell, la Savoyarde, given by the diocese of Chambéry, weighs more
than 26,000 kilogrammes, and its sound reaches many miles.
[Illustration: VIEUX MONTMARTRE, RUE ST-VINCENT
(Maison de Henri IV)]
[Illustration: RUE MONT-CENIS
(Chapelle de la Trinité)]
Rue Chevalier de la Barre, bordering the church on the north, was
formerly in part of its length Rue des Rosiers, in part Rue de la
Fontenelle, referring to a spring in the vicinity. In a wall of the Abri
St-Joseph at No. 26, we see the bullet-holes made by the Communards who
shot there two French Generals in March, 1871. Going up Rue Mont-Cenis
we see interesting old houses at every step. No. 22 was the home of the
musician Berlioz and his English wife Constance Smithson. Crossing this
long street from east to west at this point, the winding hill-side Rue
St-Vincent with its ancient walls, its trees, its grassy roadway,
makes us feel very far removed from the city lying in the plain below.
At No. 40 is the little cemetery St-Vincent. Returning to Rue Mont-Cenis
we find at No. 53 a girls’ college amid vestiges of the ancient, famous
_porcelaine_ factory, the factory of “Monsieur” under the patronage of
the comte de Provence, brother of Louis XV. The tower we see there was
that of the windmill which ground the silex. At No. 61 we come upon a
farm dating from 1782, la Vacherie de la Tourelle. At No. 67 an old inn
once the Chapelle de la Trinité (sixteenth century).
[Illustration: VIEUX MONTMARTRE
(Cabaret du Lapin-Agile)]
Returning to the vicinity of St-Pierre and the Sacré-Cœur, we find
numerous short streets, generally narrow and tortuous, which retain
their old-world aspect. Rue St-Eleuthère is one of the most ancient. Rue
St-Rustique formerly Rue des Dames, Rue Ravignan once Rue du
Vieux-Chemin, Rue Cortot, Rue Norvins, Rue des Saules, are all
seventeenth-century thoroughfares. Rue Norvins was Rue des Moulins in
bygone days. No. 23 was a far-famed _folie_, then, in 1820, the
celebrated Dr. Blanche founded there his first asylum for the insane,
many of whom he cured. At No. 9 we come to an old house and alley, the
_impasse_ Trainée, a name recalling the days when Montmartre was, in
wintry weather, a wolf-haunted district: a _trainée_ is a wolf-trap. The
inn at No. 6 was in the past a resort of singers in search of an
engagement: the impecunious could bring food to eat there. On the Place
du Tertre two trees of liberty were planted in 1848, felled in 1871. No.
3 is the site of the first Mairie of Montmartre. Passing along Rue du
Calvaire we come to the rustic Place du Calvaire, erewhile Place
Ste-Marie.
A very chief interest at Montmartre is the view. It is best obtained
from the Belvedere built by baron de Vaux at No. 39 Rue Gabrielle, and
from the Moulin de la Galette reached through Rue des Trois-Frères. Rue
de la Mire was in olden days Petite Rue des Moulins. The steps we see
are said to have been put there for the passage of cattle.
The cellars of the house at No. 7, Rue la Vieuville are vestiges of the
ancient abbey. Place des Abbesses was erewhile Rue de l’Abbaye. On the
ancient _place_ we find the most modern and most modern-style church in
Paris, St-Jean l’Evangeliste, built of concrete. The Passage des
Abbesses leads by an old flight of steps to Rue des Trois-Frères, a
modern street. Rue Lepic, for some years after its formation Rue de
l’Empereur (Napoléon III), was renamed in memory of the General who
defended the district in 1814. Numerous old streets are connected with
it. Avenue des Tilleuls recalls the days when lime-trees flourished
there, the lime-trees memorized in Alphonse Karr’s novel _Sous les
Tilleuls_. In the Square where it ends is an eighteenth-century house
where François Coppée dwelt as a boy. The severely wall-enclosed _hôtel_
at No. 72 was the home of the artist Ziem. Close here is the entrance to
the Moulin de la Galette. At the top of the house No. 100 there is an
astronomical observatory set up under Napoléon III. The Rue Girardon, a
rural pathway in the seventeenth century, was known later as Rue des
Brouillards, the point no doubt from which the city lying below was to
be seen fog-enveloped, as is not unfrequently the case. The old house
No. 13 goes by the name le Château des Brouillards. In the _impasse_ at
No. 5 stood in ancient days the Fontaine St-Denis. Its waters were of
great repute, assuring, it was said, in women who drank them, the virtue
of conjugal fidelity. And here through the short street Rue des
Deux-Frères we reach the historic Moulin de la Galette. It dates from
the twelfth century and has seen tragic days. Its owners defended it
with frantic courage in 1814, whereupon one of them, taken by the
attacking Cosaques, was roped to the whirling wheel. It was again
assailed in 1871. The property was owned by the same family from the
year 1640, a private property, a farm, a country inn, where dancing
often went on as a mere private pastime till, in 1833, its landlord, an
expert in the art of dancing, decided to turn his talent to pecuniary
account and opened there the famous public dancing-hall. Rue
Caulaincourt, erewhile quaint and rural, has lost of late years almost
all its old-time characteristics. Rue Lamarck has become quite modern in
its aspect. Rue Marcadet was known in the seventeenth century as Rue
des Bœufs--Ox Street. At No. 71 we find a fine seventeenth-century
_hôtel_, now a girls’ school, hôtel Labat, and another good old house,
also a girls’ school, at No. 75; at No. 91 yet another. The modern
structures at No. 101 are on the site of the ancient manor-house of
Clignancourt. The turret at No. 103 is probably the relic of an old
windmill. Rue de la Fontaine du But records the name of a drinking
fountain, demolished some forty years ago, said to have been set up
there by the Romans. Tradition has it the word _but_ was once _buc_, and
referred to the Roman rite of the sacrifice of a buck to Mercury.
According to another legend, “_but_,” i.e. aim, referred to the English
archers who when in France made that spot their practising-ground. Rue
du Ruisseau owes its name to the stream of water which flowed through it
on the demolition of the ancient fountain. The seventeenth-century Rue
de Maistre, bordering the northern cemetery, is the ancient Chemin des
Dames. Rue Eugène-Carrière, opening out of it, was till quite recently
Rue des Grandes Carrières, memorizing the big quarries whence from time
immemorial has been obtained the white stone, so marked a feature of
Paris buildings, and the world-famed plaster of Paris.
[Illustration: MOULIN DE LA GALETTE]
Rue Damrémont is modern; in the little Rue des Cloys opening out of it
at No. 102 we see vestiges of a curious old _cité_ of wooden dwellings.
Rue Neuve de la Chardonnière recalls the days when it was a
thistle-grown road. Rue du Poteau reminds us of the gallows of the
St-Ouen road. The Avenue de Clichy and the Avenue St-Ouen which form the
boundary of the arrondissement, both date back as important roads to the
seventeenth century. Along them we find here and there traces of ancient
buildings, none of special interest. To the east of the boulevards
Ornano and Barbes, which run through the arrondissement from north to
south, we find numerous ancient streets, mostly short. The street of
chief importance is Rue des Poissonniers, its lower end merged in
boulevard Barbes. We see several unimportant old houses along its
course. The impasse du Cimetière and the schools we see there are on
the site of an old graveyard. In Rue Affre, bearing the name of the
archbishop of Paris slain on the barricades in 1848 (_see_ p. 250), we
find the modern church St-Bernard, of pure fifteenth-century Gothic as
to style, but far inferior in workmanship to the Gothic structures of
ages past. Rue de la Chapelle, known in Napoléon’s time as Faubourg de
la Gloire, began as the Calais Road, then became the Grande Rue de la
Chapelle. La Chapelle is a spot of remarkable historic memories. It
began as the Village des Roses--in days when roses, wild and cultivated,
grew in abundance in what is now a Paris slum. Then the population,
remembering that Ste-Geneviève had stopped to rest and pray in the
church on her way to St-Denis, called their village La Chapelle-Ste-Geneviève.
Later it was named la Chapelle-St-Denis. To the church at la Chapelle
went Jeanne d’Arc in the fateful year 1425. We find ancient houses all
along the course of this old thoroughfare, and at No. 96 the church
dedicated to St-Denis, built by Maurice de Sully, the chancel of that
thirteenth-century structure still intact, after going through two
disastrous fires and suffering damage in times of war. It has been
enlarged in recent years. The statue of Jeanne d’Arc there dates from
the reign of Louis XVI.
A popular fair, la Foire de Lendit, instituted by Dagobert, was held
during centuries at the extreme end of the ancient thoroughfare. No.
122, built, tradition tells us, by Henri IV and given to his minister
Sully, became in the seventeenth century the Cabaret de la Rose Blanche.
At No. 1 Rue Boucry we see an ancient chapel now used as a public hall.