Wall of Philip II Augustus

Main article: City walls of Paris
A remaining section of the Wall of King Philip II of France (Philip Augustus), in the Rue des Jardins Saint-Paul in Paris.

The Wall of Philip Augustus is the oldest city wall of Paris (France) whose plan is accurately known. Partially integrated into buildings, more traces of it remain than of the later fortifications which were destroyed and replaced by the Grands Boulevards.

History

The wall was built during the struggles between Philip II of France (called Philip Augustus) and the Anglo-Norman House of Plantagenet. The French king, before leaving for the Third Crusade, ordered a stone wall to be built to protect the French capital in his absence.

Origin

The Right Bank was fortified from 1190 to 1209 and the Left Bank from 1200 to 1215. The difference in completion dates was probably strategic. The Duchy of Normandy was in the hands of the English Plantagenet dynasty so an attack would most likely come from the northwest. Philip Augustus decided to build the fortress of the Louvre to strengthen the defence of the city from attack from the Seine. The Left Bank was less urbanized and less threatened and thus considered less of a priority.

Evolution

Representation of the Tour de Nesle by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, 1856.

Despite the construction during the 14th century of Charles V's wall encircling Philip Augustus' wall on the Left Bank, the latter wall was not demolished. In 1434, it was still considered strong enough and thick enough for a cart to be driven on top.

However, Charles V's wall did not extend to the Left Bank, so the Philip Augustus' old wall was strengthened by:

Destruction

In 1533, Francis I demolished the Right Bank gates and authorised the leasing of the land enclosed by the wall without authorising the demolition of the wall itself. From the second half of the 16th century, these lands were sold to individuals, and often the cause of the dismantling of large sections of the wall.

The Left Bank wall followed the same path under Henry IV. In 1590, he preferred digging ditches beyond the city outskirts to once again modernising the wall. The ditches near the Seine were used as open sewers and caused health problems so in the 17th century they were filled and replaced by covered galleries. The last remaining gates, unsuited to ever-increasing traffic, were rased in the 1680s from when the wall became completely invisible.

Construction of the wall

The Philip Augustus' wall enclosed an area of 253 hectares; its length was 2500 metres on the Left Bank and 2600 on the Right Bank.[2] The west side was the weakest point of the defence against Norman threat. Near the Seine, Philip Augustus built Fortress of the Louvre with a fortified donjon and ten defensive towers surrounded by a moat. The construction cost was slightly more than 14,000 livres during the roughly twenty years of the construction: representing about 12 percent of the king's annual revenues in the 13th century.[2]

City wall

The wall was between six and eight metres high, including the parapet, about three meters thick at the base. It was made from two walls of large ashlar-faced limestone blocks, reinforced with an infill of rough-hewn stone rubble and mortar. The wall was topped with a crenellated two-metre wide chemin de ronde.

Portion of curtain existing in rue Clovis, showing the ashlar facing and rubble core construction.

Towers and bastions

The wall had 77 semi-circular towers (flat and integrated into the curtain wall on the town side) at 60-metre intervals.[2] Each stood 15 metres high, with a six-metre diameter, and one-metre thick walls. The bases were vaulted but the higher floors were wooden planked.

Four huge bastion towers – 25 metres high with a ten-metre diameter – stood at the points where the wall met the Seine. Their purpose was to defend the city against assault from the river; heavy chains could be stretched across the river to prevent access.

On the west side these were:

On the east side:

Gates and posterns

Fifteen large gates opened onto the roads leading to France's main cities. At first, they were identical: an ogival gate closed with two wooden panels set into two 15-metre high and eight-metre diameter towers. Inside the gates two portcullis completed the construction.

Simple posterns – piercing the wall – were added to improve traffic flow. They could be walled up in times of danger (as could the less used or less defensible gates). However, some posterns were intended to be defended.

Map of 14th-century Paris, by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, 1856

Traces of the wall

Philip Augustus' walls run through the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th arrondissements of Paris.

Downstream of the Seine, the wall ended at the fortress of the Louvre (Right Bank), and the Tour de Nesle (formerly Tour Hamelin) on the Left Bank. Upstream, a barrage of heavy chains across the river linked the Tour Barbeau (Right Bank) to the Tour Loriaux (on the island), linked itself to the Tournelle (Left Bank). Chains rested on rafts moored to piles driven deep into the river.

City gates

Details of the Mérian map (Paris) in 1615, showing the Tour de Nesle, the wall, the Porte de Buci and the Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

At the time of its construction, eleven main gates were laid out. Four other main gates, as well as numerous posterns, were added to reflect the city's growth. The main gates were flanked with towers, and either vaulted or left open to the sky, with gabled roofs and portcullis.

Left Bank gates

Initially, there were only five gates on the Left Bank:

In 1420, a new gate was built near Saint-Germain-des-Prés: Porte des Cordeliers (at the corner of the rue Monsieur-le-Prince and the rue Dupuytren). It was sometimes called Porte de Buci, named after an older gate further north.

Finally, at the end of the 13th century, a postern was built east of the Porte Saint-Jacques, the Porte Papale ("Pope's gate") or Porte Sainte-Geneviève at the end of the current rue d'Ulm.

Right Bank gates

Map of Sebastian Münster (1572). In blue, the walls of Philip Augustus, dubbed on the Right Bank by the wall of Charles V

At first, there were six gates on the Right Bank:

Two posterns were built between the Porte Saint-Antoine and the Seine, as well as the Barbette postern (rue Vieille-du-Temple, between the rue des Blancs-Manteaux and the rue des Francs-Bourgeois)

During the 13th century, other posterns were added:

The last gate was added in 1280:

Remaining sections

A part of the wall of Philip Augustus in the parking Mazarine, rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie
The longest still existing part is located at the corner of rue Charlemagne and the rue des Jardins-Saint Paul.

Some sections of the wall remain visible:

See also

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Enceinte of Philippe-Auguste.

References

  1. ↑ French: "un pont dormant et un pont-levis"
  2. 1 2 3 John W. Baldwin: Paris, 1200, Aubier, historical collection, 2006, p. 43-51
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