The Bastille – 8 things you didn’t know about the mythical fortress of Paris

There is no film more appropriate for Independence Day than “Giv’at Halfon Does Not Answer,” which provided us with countless immortal lines. One of them is “For an hour, an hour I search for the sea. They couldn’t put up a small sign – sea.” Every time I hear this line, I am reminded of that phone call I received many years ago from a good friend, who called me from Paris and told me that he had been looking for the Bastille for an hour and couldn’t find it. So for his sake, for the sake of other Francophiles, and for the glory of the State of Israel, let me tell you a few facts about the Bastille that you may not have known:

What did the Bastille look like in 1789?

I could of course bring you drawings and diagrams of the fortress, but let's make it more interesting. In 2014, a computer game called Assassin's Creed Unity was released, which takes place during the French RevolutionThe dedicated developers were not lazy and created a very impressive 18D model of Paris in the late XNUMXth century, through which I could “travel” through the Paris of the past and visit the Bastille. You can see the result in the following video:

And if you liked this video, you are welcome to take a look atAn article about a guided tour of 18th-century Paris And continue traveling virtually.

The Bastille didn't start out as a prison.

The first two towers of the Bastille were built in 1357 not as a royal prison but as a fortress to protect the eastern border of Paris. In fact, these towers were not built by a king. France But by Etienne Marcel, the head of the merchants of Paris and its unofficial mayor (at that time the position of mayor did not exist). During the 70s, the six additional towers were built and the Bastille became one of the most impressive fortresses of the Middle Ages. Which did not stop the English who conquered it in 14…

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The first prisoner of the Bastille was its architect…

The English were also the first to turn the Bastille into a prison, with its first prisoner being none other than its architect, Hugues Aubriot. There is no doubt that the English were already strong in the use of irony in the 15th century…

The Bastille was a deluxe prison.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Bastille became a symbol of the brutality of absolutist rule, although in reality the fortress was a kind of “prison de luxe” where nobles were usually held for periods lasting no more than six months. Unlike other prisons, prisoners were able to maintain a significant part of their previous lifestyle and were allowed to bring furniture, servants, entertainment and even enjoy visits from their mistress. Cardinal de Rohan went so far as to invite about 20 of his closest friends to his cell in the Bastille for a sumptuous dinner.

And there were some very famous guests there…

One of the famous prisoners of the Bastille was Voltaire, who was imprisoned there in 1717 after mocking the Duke of Orleans, the Regent of France. Voltaire used his imprisonment to write the play Oedipus and overall lived a good life there. His words to the Regent after he released him attest to this: “I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the excellent food that His Excellency paid for me. Next time, there is no need to pay for my lodgings either.” Another famous prisoner was the Marquis de Sade, who was imprisoned in the Bastille at the request of his family and there he wrote one of his famous works, “120 Days in Sodom.” The Marquis also lived a good life in the Bastille and was even allowed to drink the wine produced on his estates in Provence. However, 10 days before the capture of the Bastille, the Marquis de Sade was transferred to the mental hospital in Charanton after, in response to the governor of the Bastille revoking his right to walk on the towers of the fortress, the Marquis built a kind of megaphone out of paper and began screaming to passersby under his window that the prisoners in the prison were being massacred by their guards.

So who really wanted to destroy the Bastille?

Was it the French people who initiated the destruction of the Bastille? Not exactly. Holding the Bastille cost France a huge fortune and in 1784 it was decided to close the prison, demolish most of the Bastille and leave only 2 towers as historical evidence. On the ruins of the Bastille, “Louis XVI Square” was to be built, with a pyramid made of iron chains and locks used in the Bastille at its center. On the pyramid, a statue of the king reaching out towards the ruins of the Bastille and symbolically liberating Paris was to be built. However, like many plans, this plan was also delayed by French bureaucracy and as a result, the revolutionaries reached the Bastille first and the rest is history.

Where can the Bastille be found today?

After the Bastille was destroyed, the revolutionaries built a fountain. Napoleon, who disliked the revolutionary symbol, initially thought of building the Arc de Triomphe His famous one in the Place de la Bastille, but then he decided to erect a huge statue of an elephant made of plaster in its place. The statue stood there between the years 1814-1846 and next to it in 1833 a column with a bronze statue commemorating the victims of the July Revolution of 1830 was erected, which still exists today. Still want to walk on the Bastille? Go to the Place de la Concorde and cross the Seine. Congratulations, you are now standing on the Bastille because the builders of the bridge used stones taken from the citadel. The remaining stones from the citadel were sold by Pierre Francois Paloy to tourists, thus making Francois a very rich man and at the same time the father of the tourist souvenir industry.

The Bastille area is a great place to live.

Until the 90s, the Bastille area in particular and eastern Paris in general were considered less well-off areas from a socio-economic perspective. However, in recent decades, the area has undergone serious gentrification and today it is considered one of the most colorful areas thanks to the restaurants and entertainment venues in the Place de la Bastille and the surrounding streets. The Place de la Bastille borders several districts:

• The 4rd District (Southern Marais) which borders Bastille to the west.
• The 11rd District which borders Bastille to the north and northeast.
• The 12rd District which borders Bastille to the southeast.

So if you have decided to live in the area, you are more than welcome to take a look at the page.Recommended hotels in Paris or on the pageRecommended apartments There you will find hotels and apartments carefully selected for you.