Texts (some in French) Paris map in 1210 Maps and photos right bank - left bank Plaques Aspects and layouts

Philippe-Auguste's wall is more than a rampart. It's a structure that fires
the imagination, bringing the ghosts of medieval wars, the noise of battle
and the harshness of bygone days suddenly bursting into the midst of
modern-day Paris. It's still there, all around us, there to be seen in
various locations, for those of us who know where to look. It is totally
interwoven into our daily lives and we often rub shoulders with it without
realising it. But for those who understand and can appreciate the context,
it can be an uplifting, hidden oasis; the everyday ordinary city takes on an
historical dimension. We begin to appreciate that these well-travelled,
half-consciously-travelled streets, are in fact the result of a long, full
and rich history that bids us to ponder on the past, the present, and indeed
the future.

Built between 1190 and 1220 during the reign of Philippe-Auguste, this
fortified structure was the second and final wall (after the Gallo-Roman
wall that surrounded the 'île de la cité') to have had primarily a defensive
function. Indeed subsequent walls would appear to be either partly-built
(the wall of Charles V and Louis XIII) or 'fiscal' walls (Louis XIV's toll
wall) or lines of modern fortifications (The 'fortif' of Thiers erected
after the Commune of Paris 1871).

Philippe-Auguste's wall itself is a 'true' medieval wall with a walkway,
battlements, fortified gates and round towers at regular intervals. There
were towers encircling the city at this time. The Paris of 1230 somewhat
resembled modern-day Carcassonne. Running for 2800 metres on the right bank,
2600 metres on the left bank, 3 metres thick at the base, 9 metres high and
with a 14 metre high tower every 70 metres, the ramparts were an imposing
fortification. For the western defences of the city, Philippe-Auguste had
the medieval Louvre built, giving birth to the building that we know today.
This work was funded out of his own pocket (the wall itself having been
financed by the city).

The structure of the ramparts would turn out to be a key reason for their
survival. They were constructed as two sturdy thick carefully matched-up
walls, with the space in-between the two walls filled with small stones,
mortar and bits of leftover building material. Parisians appreciated the
benefits of this 'sandwich' construction. It's been a common fate for a
large number of historical structures in Paris to end up as a source of
building materials. However, when some centuries later, the wall was
regarded as less important, instead of being destroyed, new structures were
built up against existing parts of the wall, so re-using it and making
considerable economic savings for the builders. Thus imprisoned between
homes along a good portion of its route, the wall was able to survive for
many centuries. Some small sections were, of course, destroyed during later
periods, but not all. There are various surviving parts of the structure,
some of which have only come to light in more recent times. After the Second
World War a very well preserved stretch of about 50 metres of the wall and
two towers was discovered on the Right Bank at rue des Jardins St Paul.

Another interesting feature about this structure is that it was built on an
earlier ground level within the city. Today's street level, near the Seine
is about 7 metres above the level of the original city. Hence the wall has
ended up buried. At Rue Mazarine you have to go into an underground car park
to see it. A little further on, in the courtyard of Commerce St André there
is a complete tower enclosed within a shop. It can be viewed through the
shop window !

In other districts, it's not the wall that can be seen but more recent
structures that mark out and preserve the route. So, on the rue du Louvre on
the Right Bank, an odd-looking wall can be seen in the shape of part of a
circle. It's the outline of one of the wall's towers. At Rue du faubourg St
Honoré and rue St André des Arts, if you look closely at the entrances to
the building, you notice that the buildings are at a sharp angle to the
road. The houses that once were built up against the wall were themselves
built at this sharp angle to the road. Somewhat resembling dominoes, all the
buildings in the district have this simple layout.

In this way, piece by piece, site by site, existent or disappeared,
Philippe-Auguste's wall evokes directly or indirectly an almost vanished
Paris, which in spite of everything, we can still identify with, across the
centuries. And the Paris of this time was at least as ambitious and
innovative as the city now hosting the Eiffel Tower, Beaubourg (home of the
distinctive 'Centre Georges Pompidou') and the 'peripherique' (the Paris
ring road). This section of the site "Paris during the time of
Philippe-Auguste" is dedicated to the wall. It is also dedicated to those
who still know how to dream and to those web-surfers who appreciate that we
are as much a product of our history as we are of the present time.

The following texts were written in 1850 by A. Bonnardot. They are the original version in French:
Ist part - 2nd part - 3rd part

The towers

1st part - 2nd part -

The page on "La Tour de Nesles" is translated into English.