More from Rue du Faubourg Saint Martin.

Referring to my latest post about the disappeared department stores and Rue du Faubourg Saint Martin, here are some more views from the street, walking down from Gare de l’Est towards the Arch of Triumph, Porte Saint Martin, passing in front of the 10^th arrondissement’s town hall, from 1896, and the “Splendid” theatre.... We can see a number of “passages”, small side streets… Actually many of them are connecting with the parallel street Rue de Faubourg Saint Denis, via Boulevard de Strasbourg. I posted about some of them already here. Most of these “passages” or galleries are not among the most fashionable in Paris and in some cases some more or less official street artists have made some more or less official decorations, see an example on the top picture. 

   

The Arch of Triumph, Porte Saint Martin, dates from 1674, and was made at the order – and to the glory - of Louis XIV – the inscriptions on the top of the monument starts by “LUDOVICO MAGNO…”.  The four “illustrations” were made by different artists and refer to victories during the “Dutch War” (1672-78). The one we can see in detail here is about the capture of Limbourg (in today’s Belgium). The battle actually took place in 1675, one year after the erection of the Arch. The arch was consequently erected before the war was over and before the peace was reached in 1678 (for a short while).