Search results for: french revolution
Places of the French Revolution: Hôtel de Ville
Administration for the city of Paris has been located in the same spot — the Hôtel de Ville, formerly called the Place de Grève — since July of 1357. At that time, Paris’s provost of merchants (essentially mayor), Étienne Marcel, bought the maison aux piliers (House of Pillars) in the name of the city. This…
Read MoreFrench Revolution Quotes and Those Who Said Them
The French Revolution was a tumultuous ten-year period that lasted from approximately 5 May 1789 to 9 November 1799 and forever changed France. Those people who experienced these tumultuous times saw monumental social and political change. It also ultimately created the Emperor Napoleon and did away with the ancien régime beheading its leader Louis XVI…
Read MorePlaces of the French Revolution: La Force Prison
La Force prison was originally known as the Hôtel de la Force and was the private residence of Henri-Jacques Nompar de Caumont, duc de la Force. Near the end of Louis XIV’s reign, the hotel was divided into two parts: One part was called the Hôtel de Brienne, and the other part retained the name…
Read MorePlaces of the French Revolution: Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace (Palais des Tuileries) stood on the right bank of the River Seine and was home to many French monarchs, from Henry IV to Napoleon III. It began its existence in 1564, when it was built by Catherine de Medici in the tile yards (tuileries), from which the palace took its name. According…
Read MorePlaces of the French Revolution: The Bastille
Many places in France hold memories of the French Revolution and among the places perhaps most associated it is the Bastille. This impregnable building was originally built as a fortress and metamorphosed into a prison. It was located on the left bank of the Seine and served as a lightning rod for French revolutionaries who…
Read MorePlaces of the French Revolution: The Temple
The Temple originally built in the twelfth century in Le Marais was a fortress built by the Knights Templar and owes its name to them. It was replaced with a grander and larger fortress in the thirteenth century in what is currently the third arrondissement, an administrative division within France. This medieval fortress, called enclos…
Read MoreFrançois-Adrien Boieldieu: The French Mozart
François-Adrien Boieldieu was born the same day as English novelist Jane Austen, on 16 December 1775. Boieldieu’s father was secretary to Archbishop Larochefoucauld and his mother kept a millinery shop. Unfortunately, unlike Austen’s parents, Boieldieu’s parents were unhappily married, and his father filed for a divorce and married a second time.
Read MoreLouis Philippe I: King of the French From 1830 to 1848
Born on 6 October 1773, Louis Philippe became King of the French from 1830 to 1848. He was the son of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon (sister-in-law to the Princesse de Lamballe). The younger Louis Philippe inherited the title of the Duke de Chartres and was known for…
Read MoreHorace Vernet: French Painter of the 1800s
Horace Vernet was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects. He came from three generations of Vernets who were associated prominently with art. For instance, his great-grand father had a reputation as an artist far beyond where he lived. His grandfather, Claude Joseph Vernet, went to Rome to study landscape designers and maritime…
Read MorePierre Charles L’Enfant Revolutionary Architect and Washington, D.C. Planner
Pierre Charles L’Enfant was a military engineer born in Paris on 2 August 1754 to Pierre L’Enfant, a painter who served King Louis XV, and Marie L’Enfant, the daughter of a minor court official. After his older brother died at the age of six, L’Enfant was sent to study art at the Royal Academy in…
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