Chapter 9 - Paris, Art Deco and the Spirit of Apollo

Summary

Even today, the urban environment of Paris is essentially defined by the changes that took place in the nineteenth century. Until the middle of that century, the city’s layout had altered little since mediaeval times. One of the first grand projects undertaken by Napoleon III, following his self-proclamation as emperor in 1852, was to commission the reconstruction of Paris from the prefect of the Seine, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann. Ostensibly designed to rid Paris of its insalubrious, overcrowded slums, and to enable the installation of a new water supply and sewers, the rebuilding of Paris actually rode roughshod over the needs of the poorest people, who were displaced and relocated during the decades of construction; the project was motivated as much by the desire to build a capital that expressed the glory of the Second Empire in its grand squares and gardens, its wide boulevards, its magnificent limestone buildings of homogenous design, and its impressive public edifices such as the Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord that symbolised the city’s openness to the world. Wide boulevards had the added strategic advantage of being difficult to barricade and would allow easier access for troops if the need ever arose to suppress a popular uprising.