Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/408

PARIS. ilena. both of the time of the First Empire; the Font du Carrousel, built under Louis Philippe; and the Pont des Invalides, Pont de I'Alina, and Pont de Solferino — all fine structures, adorned with military and naval trophies eommeniorative of events and victories connected with the Second Empire. Among the most recent, and one of the most striking, is the Pout Alexandre Hi., named in honor of the Czar, and the Pont Mirabeau, connecting Auteuil and Grenelle. These bridges all communicate directly with the spacious quays, planted with trees, which line both banks of the Seine, and which, together with the boulevards, give characteristic beauty to the city. Although the most ancient quays — as the Quai des Augus- tins and the Quai de la Megisserie — date from the fourteenth century, the greatest part of these magnificent embankments, measuring 12 miles in extent, is due to Napoleon I. and Napoleon HI.

Streets, Buildings, JIoxumext.s, etc. The private houses, most of which are of the apart- ment or flat-house order, rising to six or seven stories, as well as the public buildings, are built of a light-colored limestone, easily wrought and carded ornamentally. Among the finest of the wide and .straight streets are the Rue de Rivoli, two miles in length, the Rue de la Paix, the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, and the Rue Royale. The boulevards, which extend in an irregularly circular line on both sides of the Seine, generally on the site of the ancient ramparts, between the nucleus of the city and its surrounding quar- ters, present the most striking feature of Pari- sian life. In all the better parts of the city they are lined with trees, seats, and little towers called Vespasiennes, covered with advertisements. Restaurants, cafes, shops, and various places of amusement succeed one another for miles, their character varying from the height of luxury and elegance in the Boulevard des Italiens and the Boulevard Haussmann. to the domestic simplicitj' of the Boulevards Beaumarchais and Saint-Denis. Among the public squares or places, of which there are over 130, mostly owned by the munici- pality, the most noteworthy is the Place de la Concorde, which connects the gardens of the Tuileries (q.v. ) with the Champs Elysees (q.v.), and embraces a magnificent view of some of the finest buildings and gardens of Paris. In the centre is the famous obelisk of Luxor, brought from Egypt to France in 1S36. and covered over its entire height of 76 feet with hieroglyphics. On the site of this obelisk stood the Revolution- ary guillotine, at which perished Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, Philippe Egalite, Danton, Robespierre, and a host of other victims. Of the other squares, the following are some of the handsomest : the Place du Carrousel, west of the Louvre, with the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, erected by Napoleon I. in commemoration of his victories in the campaigns of lSO.ii-06; the Place de la Republique. with a fine bronze statue of the Republic ; the Place de l'Op«ra ; the Place Vendome, with Napoleon's column of victory; the Place de la Bastille, where once stood that famous prison and fortress (see B.^stii-LE) ; the Place de la Nation, formerly Place du Trone (with its fine fountain and monimiental group, the Triumph of the Republic) : the Place de I'Hotel de Villc, formerly Place de la Gr&ve. for many ages the scene of public executions, and the spot at which some o* the bloodiest deeds of the Revolution were perpetrated. The Porte Saint-JIartin and Porte Saint-Denis, which were erected by Louis XIV. to commemorate his vic- tories in the Low Countries, and are adorned with bas-reliefs representing events of these campaigns, mark the ancient limits of the most turbulent quarters of the Paris of the past; the Arc de Triomphe de I'Etoile, 160 feet high and 140 feet wide, begun by Napoleon I. in 1806. and completed in 1836 at a cost of more than $2,000,000, may be said to form the extreme west- em boundarj' of the aristocratic (|uarters. It ia profusely adorned with bas-reliefs and alto-re- liefs, representing victories of Napoleon. The great streets which radiate from the Arc de Triomphe de I'Etoile are among the most mag- nificent of Paris, and form the finest quarter. The Place de I'Etoile is connected with the Champs Elysees by the Avenue des Champs Elysees, with the celebrated Bois de Boulogne (q.v.) by the Avenues Grande Armfe, Bois de Boulogne, and Victor Hugo, and the Portes Neuiliy. Dauphine, and ilaillot ; and it com- municates by the Avenues Klfbcr and d'leua with the Place, the Pare, and the Palais du Trocadero.

The Palais du Trocadero, named after a Cadiz fort taken in 1823 by the French, dates from the exhibition of 1878; it is a mammoth building of Oriental architecture and crescent form, on an elevation surmounting a huge cascade of orna- mental water. It has valuable museums of com- parative sculpture and of ethnography, and its fine Saile des Fetes, containing a huge organ, can accommodate COOO persons. In the well-kept park is a subterranean aquarium. The Pont d'l^na leads from the Park across the Seine to the historic Champ de Mars (q.v.), the site of the universal expositions since 1867. and of the Eiffel Tower (q.v.), 984 feet high, built for the Exposition of 1880. On the southeast is the Ecole Militaire, founded in 1752 and formerly used as barracks for infantry and cavalrv". but now occupied by the Ecole Su])erieure de Guerre. Near by is the HStcl des Invalides ( q.v. ), founded in 1670 for disabled soldiers. The crj-pt of the church contains the sarcophagus, hewn from a huge block of Russian granite, in which lie the remains of Napoleon I., deposited there in 1840. The Musee d'Artillerie in the west wing com- prises an historical collection of 10.000 war im- plements. The fine Esplanade des Invalides, fronting the building and bordered by the Quai d'Orsay, connects by the Pont Alexandre III. with the Champs Elysees on the north bank. Here are situated the Palais de rElysee. the official residence of the President of the Reiniblic, the Grand and Petit Palais des Beaux-Arts, where the Salons are held, and the Palais de Glace, the three latter built for the Exposition of li'OO, having replaced the Palais de I'lndustrie built for the first Great Exposition in 1855, and until 1807 housing a permanent exhibition. Thence through the Place de la Concorde the Jardin des l^iilerics is reached, to the east of which is the Louvre (q.v.), forming a square of 576 by 538 feet, remarkable, especially the eastern facade, for its architectural Iwauty.

The Louvre, formerly a royal residence, was connected with the celebrated palace of the Tuileries (q.v.) by a great picture gallerv-. and between the two palaces lay the Place du Car- rousel. Napoleon HI. further connected the Tuileries and Louvre on the northern side, throw-