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HAUSSMANN

Paris in the 19^th century : from walled city to agglomeration

In the 19^th century the concept of “city” changed. Until the beginning of the 19^th century, Paris was still thought of as a mediaeval town (an organised community, with its representatives, its wall, and its seat of political power). It was surrounded by the enclosure of the Fermiers Generaux enterprise from 1784 onwards. This enclosure permitted the taxation (l`Octroi) of products entering Paris. It has its representatives and was the source of royal power.

Paris thus constituted a third of the present-day city, with twelve arrondissements set out in 1795. (see plan). The idea of a communal and political entity was succeeded during the course of the 19^th century by the concept of agglomeration: city plus suburbs.

The Industrial Revolution in the 19^th century brought about changes in the urban landscape. Paris, like all the large cities of the Western world, attracted a mass of migrants from the countryside or from abroad in search of employment. Paris extended its boundaries over the surrounding areas, where small towns were born. These towns were administratively autonomous, but they depended economically on Paris. The use of the railways and later the automobile in the 20^th century, permitted Paris to extend its influence over an entire region of the country.

The Parisian conurbation was born. The population grew from one million in l836, 2 million in 1866, 3 million in 1886 and in 1904, 4 million inhabitants.

From then on, urban problems became those of all society. In Paris, as elsewhere, the migratory movement of a size unknown until before, was not without an increase in fears. The new arrivals were often poor and settled wherever rents were the least expensive, which brought with it an impoverishment of whole areas of Paris and the suburbs. There was, however, no ghetto at that period in Paris as there was in the United States. In France these anxieties concerned above all Paris, and became entrenched in popular opinion through the literature of the day. They are found in Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), then Les Misérables (1862) by Victor Hugo, in Les Mystères de Paris (published as a serial from 1842) by Eugene Sue, and in the works of Balzac.

The themes are as follows:

- Assimilation of the idea “working class = dangerous class”, a pathological fear of the slums.

- fear for the centre of cities: sick and dangerous; fear of the inner suburbs.

- lack of understanding of the causes of this “pauperisation”, which would become an extreme consequence of industrialisation.

- moral decline of the poor and the workers in the face of these new conditions.

The effect was the same in all the industrialised countries in the 19^th century. There was a need to reform the city, and to think of it in global terms.

The word “urbanism” was born in the years 1880-1890. According to the historian A. Sutcliffe, urbanisation at the beginning of the century meant to proceed in the organisation by a public authority of all or part of a city of where the land is in the possession of private individuals. This necessitated controlling laws. At the end of the century, urbanisation encompassed theories of the planning of urban space which were developed at that time. Urbanisation became Town Planning around 1900.

This re-thinking of the concept of urbanisation was imposed everywhere at the same time in the cities of the industrialised world. There was an internationalisation of reforming action in cities. International exhibitions took place in the major capitals. That of 1867, which was held in Paris, attracted 200,000 visitors. It was the occasion to publicise abroad the work of Baron Haussmann who had remodelled Paris as a modern city.

Georges-Eugene Haussmann was the great town-planner of modern Paris. If he was inspired by preceding actions, there is a “before and after” Haussmann for those who study the evolution of the Paris landscape.

It is time, now, to look at the action of the public authorities on Paris before Haussmann. This action prepared the way for Haussmann. The politics of Paris were very active during the whole of the 19^th century, and the different regimes which followed attempted to resolve in a durable fashion, the problems of urbanism.

Napoléon (1799-1815):

Napoléon was always suspicious of Paris. The Revolution had left its mark on his spirit. He did, though, govern from Paris, and was consecrated Emperor at Notre-Dame. Paris remained calm during the Empire, the wars taking place far away.

He wanted to make Paris the capital of Europe, in the Roman style. The project was aborted, but he assumed the destruction of the ancient city (“the suffocated anthill”) and the improvement of traffic circulation.

The modifications went in this direction: the construction of the Rue de Rivoli began at this time; the façade of the Louvre Palace was freed from the side of this street. Two footbridges were built: the pont St-Louis and the pont des Arts, and two stone bridges, the pont d`Austerlitz and the pont d`Iéna. The St Martin, Ourcq and St Denis canals were cut as were the docks at la Villette and the Arsenal.

In addition, Napoléon marked the urban landscape by his taste for the monumental: the Arc de triomphe du Carrousel was constructed in the courtyard of the Louvre, the Colonne Vendôme was erected on the lines of the Colonne Trajane in Rome, and finally, the construction of the Arc de Triomphe in the Champs-Elysées was begun. Other huge projects were abandoned, for example a palace for the King of Rome at Chaillot, a administrative complex in the Champs de Mars and an immense fountain in the form of an elephant at the Bastille.

The principal interest of this Napoléonic episode was that it marked the beginning of the transition between prestige monumental urbanism and the modern town planning by regulation.

The return of the Monarchy (1815-48):

After the fall of the Empire, the monarchy was re-established. Paris remained indifferent to the quarrels between the various pretenders, but in 1830 Charles X was chased from the throne by a 3-day uprising. Louis-Philippe – a king who adopted certain republican aspects – succeeded him.

The period of the return of the monarchy was a preparation for “Haussmannisation”, when a survey of the city was made. In 1839 a municipal commission was charged with examining the city centre. This commission concluded that the centre of Paris was obsolescent. At that time the concept of a “sick city” became widely held. The mediaeval centre within the ancient enclosure of Philippe-Auguste aroused general disgust.

The flagrant imbalance between left and right banks reappeared, since from the end of the 18^th century the left bank was devoted to less dynamic activity. On the right bank, the advent of new neighbourhoods outside the enceinte of the Fermiers Généraux (which was destroyed after 1823, but the Octroi was still levied as a tax), reinforced this imbalance.

Finally at this period priority was given to the circulation of traffic. Paris suffered, like all the large cities of the period, from the absence of a coherent pattern of urban roads. The construction of the stations in Paris from 1841 onwards was a significant example of this problem. They were all wedged in and had poor links with the city centre.

The Prefects of the Seine (Chabrol 1812-33, Rambuteau 1833-48 and Berger 1848-53) appointed directly by the King, began the work: 175 streets were opened in Paris between 1815 and 1853. The most important was the rue Rambuteau in 1838, because it was the first to be cut in the densely interwoven city-centre, which involved compulsory purchase and demolition. Until then, the new streets had been opened in new districts. The ancient system of waiting for obstructing buildings to fall into disrepair before forcing the owners to respect the alignment of the street was replaced by a new system of massive expropriation. The same was done for the street of the Bourse, around the Louvre and the place Vendôme.

Two types of impediment were to prevent these Prefects from going further. The first was legislative and the second financial. The law of 16^th September 1807 gave to the public authorities the means to compel new owners to respect the new routes. But this law was not enforced. The owners found support in the Council of State, wishing to eliminate all restriction of rights to property. In consequence, all the new districts within or outside the city (Batignolles, Beaugrenelle, quartier de l`Europe, Passy…) were constructed on the initiative and under the control of private capital, thus outside the control of the municipality. The financial problem came from worries about running the city into debt, by financial orthodoxy. The Prefect Rambuteau refused to borrow. And besides, until the Second Empire (1851-70), there was now a powerful national bank. With the creation of the Crédit Foncier and Crédit Mobilier banks in 1852, Haussmann was not to experience this problem.

There was also not sufficient political will to transform Paris. The existing monarchy was not strong enough to ignore the pressure of the classic lobbies and of the notables.

All the same, several notable projects were achieved. In 1836 the Arc de Triomphe in the Champs-Elysées was finished, in homage for the victories of the French Revolution and Napoléon.

From 1841 onwards, works were undertaken to give the city new military fortifications, which were created around all the new districts which had been constructed outside the enclosure of the Fermiers Généraux.

The Second Republic (1848-1851):

In 1848 Louis-Philippe was toppled. The Second Republic lasted a very short time, the future Napoléon III, the nephew of the Emperor, put an end to it with a coup d`Etat in December 1851.

The Second Empire (end of 1851-1870):

The Second Empire marked the beginning of the Haussmann era. Paris became a modern city - or more precisely, a city well adapted to its epoch.

Haussmann was named by Napoléon III as Prefect in June 1853, and he continued the pre-existent ideas, but he systematised them in a programme of urban reconstruction without parallel in the world. His influence continued after his sacking in January 1870, because his ideas and his methods endured until 1900. He endowed Paris with a coherent plan (entry points, service network, traffic), which was adopted in all the great French cities (Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux, Le Havre, Toulon, Montpellier, Toulouse, Rouen, Brest. It was the first innovation in French urbanisation of this epoch: to urbanise a town, was to urbanise Paris.

The second feature of the work of Haussmann was the brilliance of his complete programme, which gained him international admiration, and his plans were later applied in Brussels, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Antwerp, Dresden, Chicago and Vienna... Although Haussmann hadn`t solved all the problems, as we will see later, Paris was not modified until 1960, a century later.

His work was, for a long time, considered a massacre. For the writer Emile Zola Paris would have been cut up with an axe. He repeated the criticisms of republicans and liberals who condemned totally the Second Empire. Two clichés were often used to sum up the work of Haussmann: he was deemed to have opened wide streets in the popular districts in order to prevent the erection of barricades and the entry of public forces. In la Curee, Emile Zola saw in the renovation of Paris the occasion for a vast financial game, with speculation a scandalous enrichment. In a pamphlet entitled “Les Comptes Fantastiques d`Haussmann” in 1867, the socialist Jules Ferry described the financing of the works as a scandal, at the limit of legality, and which brought excessive profits.

Thanks to the thesis of L. Girard, we now know that these accusations of favours to numerous financiers were false. Many finance companies lost money, and if the Caisse des Travaux de Paris ( which financed public works ) created in 1858, had finally borrowed a great deal of money by procedures only just legal, it was to be able to finish the works. Haussmann himself was a man of integrity.

Today there is complete agreement among historians in admiration for the work of Haussmann. F.Loyer, in his work on the streets of Paris in the 19^th century (1987) writes of “a great success in urban history”. His work is admired for the invention of town planning by regulation, which preserved the old city while making it accessible; for the balance found between buildings of the Haussmann type, and the streets, and for the rare balance achieved between state control and private speculation.

From an aesthetic point of view, the wide boulevards which were cut responded to a new logic. They are wide and straight to facilitate travel and speed. They were considered more modern at the time because the mediaeval roads were narrow and sinuous. Nevertheless they can be de-humanising if too many are constructed. In Paris, for the most part, a balance was found.

The principles which moved the decision-makers were as follows: Napoléon III had conceived the essentials of the master plan. He wanted to link the stations, to open up the old quarters, to establish a large crossing North-South/East-West in the centre of Paris and to create gardens such as those he had seen in London, where he had lived in exile. He established a strong regime – which became more flexible after 1860. With the realisation of his projects he aimed for European prestige.

Haussmann, in his Mémoires doesn`t portray himself as the author of a treatise on urbanisation, but as someone who had realised something starting from adopted principles . He wanted to tear the heart out of the centre of Paris with the aim of lowering the density of population and to achieve a better division of the inhabitants over the whole capital.

That was why, in 1860, Paris annexed “La Petite Banlieue”, (little suburbs) the sector situated between the ancient enclosure of the Fermiers Généraux and the new military enceinte. Paris gained 400,000 inhabitants and the surface area doubled. Twenty arrondissements were created (see plan) thus the twenty districts of present-day Paris were born.

He wanted to organise a general traffic network around the renovated centre. Starting at Les Halles and Le Châtelet, arteries of communication spread out like the spokes of a wheel.

He envisaged a network of large squares and crossroads around the centre: l`Etoile, la Bastille, la Nation, le Châtelet…At the same time as all that, he constructed the network of drains and water supply and also parks and gardens.

He relied on new legislative and financial methods. The Order in Council of 25^th March 1852 allowed the expropriation of the area of the new streets. He could also demolish part of the Ile de la Cité. After 1860, the Empire became more liberal: property owners often appealed to the Council of State, which frequently found in their favour. Haussmann had thus more problems.

Standards were adopted so that the constructions were not too disparate. When the city sold a plot, in the contract of sale precise rules for cornices, mouldings, balconies etc were laid down. From the financial point of view, the city no longer financed the works solely from its revenues, but had recourse to borrowing, which Rambuteau hadn`t dared to do.

The transformation of Paris by Haussmann:

He established three networks for the circulation of traffic: the first (1854-58) and best-known was the great North-South/East West crossing: rue Sebastopol-boulevard St Michel crossed the rue de Rivoli at the place du Châtelet. The centre of the crossing freed the Ile de la Cité (above all to the East) as well as les Halles.

The second network(1858-60) allowed the extension of traffic from the centre: work around the future place de la République, la rue de Rome, and around l`Etoile, Chaillot, l`Ecole Militaire and la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve.

The third network was made with the aim of linking the “Petite Banlieue” annexed in 1860, with the rest of Paris. It was the beginning of work at the place de l`Opéra (finished in 1878); Belleville was linked to Bercy; the southern routes of the 16^th arrondissement were created. Finally, the rue de Rivoli was copied on the left bank by the creation of the boulevard St. Germain.

The aesthetic and monumental aspects were also taken into consideration with the construction of churches (St Augustin and la Trinité), public facilities were decided (l`Opéra, the Bibliothèque Nationale (library) and les Halles Baltard (markets)). Town Halls for each arrondissement were constructed.

He wanted to mark crossroads with a monument, for example the St. Michel fountain. In the interests of hygiene, a network for water supply was constructed. The Roman aqueduct method was chosen, which allowed spring water to be brought from afar and distributed to homes. 560 kilometres of drains were also installed.

Finally, green spaces were planned and put in place. The engineer Jean-Charles Alphand (who succeeded Haussmann in 1870) created the Bois de Boulogne and Vincennes; the parks Buttes-Chaumont, de Monceau and Montsouris, plus local squares and gardens in the arrondissements. Trees were planted in all the avenues except the avenue de l`Opéra.

In January 1870 Haussmann was sacked. The regime was increasingly criticised and the financial situation worsened from 1860. In 1870 the deficit for public works was 1,475,000,000 francs, which made it impossible to take out new loans. The republicans claimed that Paris would never recover. In fact the debt was paid off by about 1890. And besides, the Parisians had had enough. There had been mess and disruption for twenty years. The Second Empire had drawn prestige from the reconstruction of Paris, but this suddenly broke down in the absence of the most significant prestige – that which is obtained by force of arms.

Text: PJ - Director History Department of www.parisrama.com

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