Place Denfert-Rochereau
Encyclopedia
Place Denfert-Rochereau, previously known as Place d'Enfer, is a public square located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, in the Montparnasse
Montparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...

 district, at the intersection of the boulevards Raspail
Boulevard Raspail
Boulevard Raspail is a boulevard of Paris, in France.Its orientation is north-south, and joins boulevard Saint-Germain with place Denfert-Rochereau whilst traversing 7th, 6th and 14th arrondissements...

, Arago, and Saint-Jacques, and the avenues René Coty, Général Leclerc, and , as well as the streets Froidevaux, Victor-Considérant and de Grancey. It is one the largest and most important squares on the left bank
Rive Gauche
La Rive Gauche is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two: looking downstream, the southern bank is to the left, and the northern bank is to the right....

 of the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...

.

The square is named after Pierre Denfert-Rochereau
Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau
Pierre Philippe Marie Aristide Denfert-Rochereau, , was a French serviceman and politician...

, the French commander who organized the defense at the siege of Belfort
Siege of Belfort
The Siege of Belfort was a 103-day military assault and blockade of the city of Belfort, France by Prussian forces during the Franco-Prussian War...

 during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 (1870-1871). It is dominated by the Lion of Belfort
The Lion of Belfort
The Lion of Belfort is a monumental sculpture by Frédéric Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty in New York, located in Belfort, France.- Overview :...

 statue (a smaller version of the original in the town of Belfort
Belfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...

) by Frédéric Bartholdi.
The square is the location of the Paris Catacombs
Catacombs of Paris
The Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are an underground ossuary in Paris, France. Located south of the former city gate , the ossuary holds the remains of about 6 million people and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris' stone mines...

 museum. It is frequently the place where demonstrations and protest marches in Paris either start or end. The square is also the place depicted on the backdrop at the beginning of the third act of La Bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...

by Puccini.

History

This place owes its original official recognition to letters patent dated 9 August 1760, which applied to the part of the site that was located inside the old Wall of the Farmers-General
Wall of the Farmers-General
The Wall of the Farmers-General was built between 1784 and 1791 by the Ferme générale, the corporation of tax farmers. It was one of the several city walls of Paris built between the early Middle Ages to the mid 19th century. It was 24 kilometers long and roughly followed the route now occupied by...

 (the wall built, under the ancien régime, to prevent the evasion of excise taxes) that separated Paris from the suburb of Montrouge
Montrouge
Montrouge is a commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the center of Paris, France. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe...

, that is to say, the northeastern portion of the present Place Denfert-Rochereau. An ordinance of the Bureau of Finances, dated 16 January 1789, recognized the southwestern portion, the part outside the wall, as part of Paris. The opening in the wall itself, that permitted entry or exit from Paris, was commonly called the Barrière d’Enfer. It is mentioned in Les Misérables
Les Misérables
Les Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...

by Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

:
"How did those children come there? Perhaps they had escaped from some guardhouse which stood ajar; perhaps in the vicinity, at the barrière d'Enfer, or on the esplanade de l'Observatoire, or in the neighboring carrefour, dominated by the pediment on which could be read: invenerunt parvulum pannis involutum ["they discovered the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes"], there was some mountebank's booth from which they had fled […]."


Here, astride the opening in the wall, the architect, Claude Nicolas Ledoux
Claude Nicolas Ledoux
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux was one of the earliest exponents of French Neoclassical architecture. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to design not only in domestic architecture but town planning; as a consequence of his visionary plan for the Ideal City of Chaux, he became known as a utopian...

, constructed two tollhouses to be used for the collection of the octroi
Octroi
Octroi is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption.-Antiquity:Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being known in Roman times as vectigalia...

, a local tariff levied on products entering Paris. At the center of the present square, these two "pavilions" once framed the opening in the wall, and now, oddly, the entrance to the "underworld" of the catacombs lies next to the western one of them, the pavilion at the barrière d'Enfer ("barrier of Hell").

Former name

Traditionally called by the rather unattractive name of Place d’Enfer (Place of Hell), the square had the name of Denfert-Rochereau ascribed to it through a sort of "municipal pun". The Franco-Prussian War had demoralized the French populace, and there was widespread damage all over northeastern France and to Paris itself. Anxious to put a positive spin on the defeat, the French authorities were looking for heroes to glorify. (At this time, for example, the village of Bitche
Bitche
Bitche is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France.It is known for its large citadel. The surrounding territory is known as le Pays de Bitche in French and Bitscherland in German.-Geography:...

, located near the German border on the Orne
Orne
Orne is a department in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne.- History :Orne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Normandy and Perche.- Geography :Orne is in the region of...

, had a Parisian square named for it because it had put up a spirited defense against the Prussians.)

Denfert-Rochereau was a courageous man and an authentic hero, but whether his grandiose nickname, "The Lion of Belfort", was deserved is a matter of some debate. Nonetheless, since "Denfert" (of Denfert-Rochereau) is pronounced exactly the same as "d'Enfer" (of Place d'Enfer), this coincidence was too perfect for the mairie (city hall) to ignore. They renamed the square Place Denfert-Rochereau, and they could plausibly deny that they were ignoring Paris's ancient traditions in so doing. The name has remained Place Denfert-Rochereau ever since.

Places of interest

The main square, Place Denfert-Rochereau, is planted with trees, mostly chestnuts, maples, and locusts, and there are three named green spaces within it as well: Square Abbé Migne
Jacques Paul Migne
Jacques Paul Migne was a French priest who published inexpensive and widely-distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a universal library for the Catholic priesthood.He was born at Saint-Flour, Cantal and studied...

, Square Jacques Antoine, and Square Claude Nicolas Ledoux. At the center of the square, in the midst of the traffic circulation, is a one-third-scale replica of the Lion of Belfort statue by Bartholdi, symbolizing the courage of the resistance raised by Colonel Denfert-Rochereau at Belfort. In the garden to one side is a monument by Jean Boucher
Jean Boucher (artist)
Jean Boucher was a French sculptor based in Brittany. He is best known for his public memorial sculptures which communicated his liberal politics and patriotic dedication to France and Brittany.-Early years:Boucher was born in Cesson-Sévigné near Rennes, Brittany...

 commemorating Ludovic Trarieux
Ludovic Trarieux
Ludovic Trarieux was a French Republican statesman, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.-Early life:...

.

The entrance to the catacombs is located next to a handsome stone building with three romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 arches across its facade, on the odd-numbered side of Avenue du Colonel-Henri-Rol-Tanguy (a street, one block in length, that hardly qualifies as an avenue.) This entrance is directly across the street from an identical even-numbered building that houses the Directorate of Roads and Transport (Direction de la Voirie et des Déplacements). These two buildings, classified as historical monuments
Monument historique
A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...

, are the pavilions of the old Barrière d'Enfer, where taxes were collected on goods entering Paris. They are built to the design of the nineteenth-century architect, Claude Nicolas Ledoux
Claude Nicolas Ledoux
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux was one of the earliest exponents of French Neoclassical architecture. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to design not only in domestic architecture but town planning; as a consequence of his visionary plan for the Ideal City of Chaux, he became known as a utopian...

, whose work can be found all over the city. This part of the square has enveloped the site of the Barrière d'Enfer, as well as part of the boulevards d'Enfer and Saint-Jacques, and a part of the boulevards Montrouge
Montrouge
Montrouge is a commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the center of Paris, France. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe...

 and Arcueil
Arcueil
Arcueil is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Name:The name Arcueil was recorded for the first time in 1119 as Arcoloï, and later in the 12th century as Arcoïalum, meaning "place of the arches" , in...

, roads which, at one time, led to those two southern suburbs but no longer exist.

Metro station

The Place Denfert-Rochereau is:
It is served by lines 4 and 6.



The station for the RER Line B commuter trains is now in the old train station of the Sceaux line
Ligne de Sceaux
thumb|Old ligne de Sceaux, between [[Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse]] and [[Boullay-les-Troux]]"La Ligne de Sceaux" was a railway line in France running from Paris to some of its southern suburbs, including Sceaux from which it takes its name...

, the entrance to which is also in the square.

External links


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