The Temple area

In my last post about the “Carreau du Temple” I promised to revert with something more.

Despite the fact that I already wrote (see here) about the long history of this area, I cannot resist against some more history and mapping.

Just round the corner of the covered market, you can find some kind of wall map of what the area looked like in 1793, before some demolition was started. Some illustrations “stolen” on the net, show the aspect of what once was the home of the Templars by the end of the 18^th century, when Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were imprisoned in the old tower / castle-keep. This tower stood just in front of where now the 3^rd arrondissement Town Hall stands – see the blue marks on the pavement.  

I also made a comparison between today and the Turgot-plan from 1739 and with the city plan from 1790 (the tower encircled).

I amused myself by trying to incorporate these plans with the present look of Paris.

In the beginning of the 19^th century the area was completely remodelled. We could then find the “Rotonde du Temple” (already there since 1788) and wooden covered markets were added early 19^th century. This became an important centre for clothes and tissue merchants.

All this was replaced around 1863 and a vast area was covered by a steel, brick and glass complex, still specializing in the same trade. In this illustration from the end of the 19^th century, we can see what it all looked like – including a new little park and the local Town Hall (3^rd arrondissment).

Four of originally six pavilions were dismantled 1905 and today remain only the two we know. The space of the four disappeared ones is now occupied by some imposing, well decorated, official and school buildings from the early 19^th century.

So, now coming to what we can see today. My previous post already described the remodelled covered market buildings. What is really attractive is the beautiful little park, Square du Temple, opened around 1860, once again thanks to J-C Alphand, who was involved in the creation of the majority of the still existing Paris parks and squares. (I mentioned him in a number of my previous posts.) I found some of this year’s first ducklings.  

The area is getting more and more attractive for strolling around, with a great number of cafés, restaurants, art galleries, libraries, flower shops…

In one of the courtyards I found this beautiful and very alert cat. 

Some historic towers

I owe a lot of what now will follow to Jean-Paul, author of PARIS-BISE-ART, who is extremely clever in finding all kinds of  “odd things” in Paris.

I have already posted about Le Temple (The Temple) and Saint-Martin-des-Champs (Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields) and I found, at least personally, what now follows interesting as additional information.

In the previous post about The Temple, I tried to give you the history of the place, how it has been the home of the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller… about the “Grosse Tower”, where the Royal family members were prisoners after the Revolution… and that nothing is left, ... except a tower of the previous surrounding wall. This tower is part of an old apartment building (rue Charlot) and can normally not be visited, but the building is now under restoration and it is possible, at least for the moment, to enter the gate which remains more or less open during the works. So, I went there…

Google Earth allows you to see the 12th century tower from the top; I and my camera could only see it from below. I copied the below illustration from my previous post to hopefully make the “story” clearer.

Very close to the Temple is what used to be the Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, founded in 1060, of which I also tried to give some historical background in my previous post. Here some of the old buildings remain, including the church buildings, a library…. Since the Revolution, this is the site for the National Conservatory for Arts and Crafts (Arts et Métiers) and since 1802 also a fabulous museum.

It was said that nothing remains of the surrounding walls, but Jean-Paul found contradictory information. Inside a do-it-yourself shop (rue Bailly), you can see the bottom of one of the angle towers which on this level is used as a storage room.

Jean-Paul even managed to get inside the tower, which on higher levels is used as stairs for an old apartment building. (I tried to get in also, but…)

Also here I copied an illustration from my previous post.

After this histry "lesson", I would like to prove to you that the spring has arrived here!

I wish you a nice weekend!

Saint Martin des Champs - Art et Métiers

Well, as I showed the metro station “Arts et Métiers” in a previous post (last Sunday), it seems logical that we now make a visit to what you can find on the ground, above the station. What was created during the revolutionary years (in 1794) as the National Conservatory for Arts and Crafts (Arts et Métiers) is still today a higher education state establishment, and since 1802 also a fabulous museum. Originally this was the Priory (or Abbey) of Saint-Martin-des-Champs (St.Martin-in-the-Fields), with very old origins, officially (re)founded in 1060, then well outside the city limits. It’s amazing to see the surface St.Martin – together with the nearby Temple – occupied. St. Martin played for centuries a great role in the French religious history and had some famous priors, including Richelieu.

Contrary to what happened with the Temple (see previous post), some of the old buildings of St.Martin were left to the posterity after the Revolution, including churches, chapels and also a refectory which now is the library of the Conservatory (same architect as the Sainte Chapelle (see previous post) – Peter de Montereau). Some new Conservatory buildings were added during the 19th century and two big new streets crossed the area, including Rue Réaumur (see previous posts), which even made its way between two of the churches, St. Martin and St.Nicolas-des-Champs (see previous post) – see the difference between the 1739 map and today.

The St. Martin church is now part of the museum, the most spectacular from architectural point of view. It was built between the 12th and 14th centuries. This is where you can find some of the bigger objects (top picture) like steam engines, cars and even some of the early aeroplanes including one on which Louis Blériot crossed the Channel in 1909. This is also where you today find (a copy of) the Foucault Pendulum (the original is now transferred to the Panthéon – see previous post), which proves that the globe is rotating. (Umberto Eco’s book “Foucault’s Pendulum” is clearly related to the “Art et Métiers” Museum.)












 

The museum has totally some 80.000 objects and some 15.000 drawings to testify how techniques of different kinds have developed during centuries. You can see the first photographic equipment (Daguerre...), the first telephones, radios, televisions, calculating machines (one of them is a copy of the one I had on my desk in my first job!), computers, satellites... There are also models of some important construction work, including the NY version of the Statue of Liberty. (In previous posts I have talked about the original statue in the Luxembourg Gardens, about the place where the NY version was constructed...). Of course, a great number of beautiful early precision instruments, clocks... are also exposed. I also found the 1948 model of my 2008 Solex (today electrically driven)!

The Temple

(No, the "temple" is not the small wooden thing with a pigeon on top you see on the photo.)

Of what used to be called the Temple, hardly anything remains. Today you can visit a small park, Square du Temple, but here you will find nothing which reminds you of what the Temple used to be. However, some very minor traces do exist. But, let’s first try to get an idea of what the Temple really was.

Originally the Temple was a medieval fortress, built for the Knights Templar (or the Order of the Temple) during the 13th century. As this Order was dissolved soon later (“tough” actions by the Avignon Pope Clement V, King Philip IV... ), the Knights Hospitaller (of Jerusalem, Rhodes, Malta...) took over and remained until the Revolution.

On the plans I show here, you can see what the Temple looked like in 1739 (from the Turgot plan), including church, chapel, hospital.... Some special attention is of course drawn to the Tour du Temple (the Temple Tower, the “Grosse Tour”, “Grosse Tower”, “Grande Tour”) which dates from 1306. It served immediately partly as prison, more and more with the time. It’s especially known for having been the prison of the Royal family after the Revolution. Louis XVI left directly from here to the guillotine (see previous posts); Marie-Antoinette was transferred to the Conciergerie (see previous post) for a short while, before it was her turn.... Compared to the 1739 plan, some modifications had already taken place when the Royal Family arrived in 1792. Obviously some of the walls were already demolished. The “Grosse Tour”, which had its place just behind the park corner you can see on the top picture (traces have been painted in the street just behind - in front of the local 3rd arrondissement Town Hall), was destroyed in 1808, and soon also most of the other buildings. The home of the “Grand Prior” which in the meantime had been used as home of members or “friends” of the Royal family (the young Mozart was invited to play here) remained until the middle of the 19th century and the Haussmann modifications.

What remains than today of the Temple?

Hardly anything. The doors of the “Grosse Tour” can be found at the Château de Vincennes (photo from Wikipedia) and a wall corner tower remains in the yard, between some apartment buildings which you cannot access (unless living there or being invited of course). (See plan above.)

The doors of the gate to a house close by (1 rue Saint-Claude) are said to come from the “Grand Prior” building. (It happens also to be the place where an impostor, Joseph Balsamo, “Count of Cagliostro”, lived in the 1780’s. He was heavily involved in an affair called the “Collier de la Reine” (Queen’s Necklace).

After the demolition, the park, Square du Temple, was created. Just north of it, a first covered market was built in 1811, replaced by a large cast iron version in 1863, but a few decades later in its turn partly replaced by apartment buildings. However, a small part of the “Marché du Temple” (specialised in clothes and textiles), the “Carreau du Temple”, remains - today under modification to become a local centre for cultural and sports activities.