hamed al-shomrani

Earlier attempts to modernize the city[edit]

 

 

 

 

The second-hand clothing market, the Marché du Temple, in 1840, before Haussmann.

The urban problems of Paris had been recognized in the 18th century; Voltaire complained about the markets "established in narrow streets, showing off their filthiness, spreading infection and causing continuing disorders." He wrote that the facade of the Louvre was admirable, "but it was hidden behind buildings worthy of the Goths and Vandals." He protested that the government "invested in futilities rather than investing in public works." In 1739 he wrote to the King of Prussia: "I saw the fireworks which they fired off with such management; would rather they started to have a Hotel de Ville, beautiful squares, magnificent and convenient markets, beautiful fountains, before having fireworks." [7]

The 18th century architectural theorist and historian Quatremere de Quincy had proposed establishing or widening public squares in each of the neighbourhoods, expanding and developing the squares in front the Cathedral of Notre Dame and the church of Saint Gervais, and building a wide street to connect the Louvre with the Hotel de Ville, the new city hall. Moreau, the architect in chief of Paris, suggested paving and developing the embankments of the Seine, building monumental squares, clearing the space around landmarks, and cutting new streets. In 1794, during the French Revolution, a “Commission of Artists” drafted an ambitious plan to build wide avenues, including a street in a straight line from the Place de la Nation to the Louvre, where the Avenue Victoria is today, and squares with avenues radiating in different directions, largely making use of land confiscated from the church during the Revolution, but all of these projects remained on paper.[8]

Napoleon Bonaparte also had ambitious plans for rebuilding the city. He began work on a canal to bring fresh water to the city and began work on the Rue de Rivoli, beginning at the Place de la Concorde, but only was able to extend it to the Louvre before his downfall. “If only the heavens had given me twenty more years of rule and a little leisure, “he wrote while in exile on Saint Helena, “one would vainly search today for the old Paris; nothing would remain of it but vestiges.” [9]

The medieval core and plan of Paris changed little during the restoration of the monarchy through the reign of King Louis-Philippe (1830–1848). It was the Paris of the narrow and winding streets and foul sewers described in the novels of Balzac and Victor Hugo- the famous uprising described in Les Miserables took place in 1832. In 1833, the new prefect of the Seine under Louis-Philippe, Claude-Philibert Barthelot, comte de Rambuteau, made modest improvements to the sanitation and circulation of the city. He constructed new sewers, though they still emptied directly into the Seine, and a better water supply system. He constructed 180 kilometres of sidewalks, a new street, Rue Lobau; a new bridge over the Seine, the pont Louis-Philippe; and cleared an open space around the Hotel de Ville. He built a new street the length of the Île de la Cité. and three additional streets across it: rues d'Arcole, de la Cité, and Constantine. To access the central market at Les Halles, he built a wide new street (today's Rue Rambuteau), and began work on boulevard Malesherbes. On the Left Bank, he built a new street, Rue Soufflot, which cleared space around the Pantheon, and began work on the rue des Ecoles, between the Ecole Polytechnique and the College de France.[10]

Rambuteau wanted to do more, but his budget and powers were limited. He did not have the power to easily expropriate property to build new streets, and the first law which required minimum health standards for Paris residential buildings was not passed until April, 1850, under Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte