On this week’s newest episode of the La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec a Hemingway podcast we venture into an event that happened 152 years ago this week. The Bloody Week as it is called began on Sunday, May 21, 1871, and resulted in more than 10,000 deaths and destroyed close to 600 buildings including 32 public offices in Paris.
Today, only a few vestiges remain of the structures destroyed in the battle between the National Guard of Paris and the Army of Versailles. The Palais des Tuileries, Hotel de Ville, and Palais d’Orsay are just a few that have been lost forever.
Hôtel de Ville, the stunning Neo-Renaissance building covered with statues and the roof guarded by soldiers isn’t the first rendition of the building. The seat of the mayor of Paris since 1357 stood until 1589 when François I decided a much more opulent building was needed. He tapped Italian architect La Boccador who had also been the man behind his Blois and Amboise chateaux in the Loire. Between 1535-1551 the south side facing the Sein was completed. Construction was put on hold for the Wars of Religion and finally picked up again in 1605 by Henri IV and finished in 1628 by Louis XIII. From 1836-1850 the building was expanded, the facade updated and the interior given a lavish polish including frescos by Delacroix and Ingres in the Salon de la Paix.
However, just a few years later it would all be lost. As the Bloody Week burned their way through Paris, they stopped in the Place de Greve. The Hôtel de Ville was the seat of the Commune Council and on May 24, 1871, they gathered at the door with torches. Evacuating the building in the early morning, they would set it ablaze, and by 11 am it was engulfed in flames, burning for days.
Everything was lost including the archives of the city. They decided to bring it back to its former grandeur in less than a year. Architect Eduardo Deperthes, using the original plans, had the bones of the exterior rebuilt. The 19th C version would include more than 338 statues of famous French men and a lady or two. Even Rodin did one. Delacroix’s frescos may be gone, but on the south end, he stands looking towards Notre Dame.
It is one of the most beautiful buildings in Paris, and hours can be spent walking around it, looking for your favorite artists. Today you can find a few of the ruins in Parc Monceau, Trocadero, and Square Paul-Langevin.
For the Palais d’Orsay, we have to go back to the 16th century when it was once the garden of Marguerite de Valois first wife of Henri IV until her death when they turned the property into elegant homes. In 1810 under Napoleon a building was ordered for his expanding government and architect Jacques-Charles Bonnard who had restored the Tuileries was tapped with the project. The first stone was laid on April 4, 1810, but the fall of Napoleon would delay the finish until 1838.
The Council d’Etat decided to move in to finally complete the building in 1842.
In 1845 the young painter Thédore Chassériau was asked to complete a series of paintings to decorate the Cour de Comptes stairwell. Chassériau had a gift for drawing as a child. In 1830 at just eleven years old he joined the atelier of Jean-Auguste Ingres, the great French classical painter. He immediately struck at his talent and told everyone about his young protege. Working with him for four years until Ingres left for Rome, he would find another amazing instructor, Eugene Delacroix. The leader of the Romantic movement was the opposite of Ingres. With Delacroix, he discovered the magic of the Orient, the use of color, and the large sweeping murals. Chassériau was the bridge between the classical and romantic styles and it fit him perfectly.
Chassériau’s paintings lined the stairwell and were partially destroyed that horrible night on May 23, 1871. However, it wasn’t the fire that did most of the damage. For 27 years the burned-out remains of the Palais d’Orsay and the paintings stood through the wind, rain, and sun damaging them further.
In 1898 it was finally demolished and thankfully the paintings were saved. What is left of them can be found in the Musée du Louvre hanging high above Salle 225 of the Richelieu wing. A few are painted in the grisaille fashion of shades of grey, those are more complete the paintings that are torn and worn away. Chassériau died far too early at just 37 years old but lives on forever on the walls of the Louvre.
Less than three decades later the beautiful building would be destroyed. On the night of May 23, 1871, the fires of the Commune engulfed the building and for 27 years the burnt-out remains of the Palais d’Orsay remained.
Maybe the Palais des Tuileries was the most notorious of all these buildings.
Once upon a time in the center of Paris at the end of the Palais du Louvre sat a mythical palace. Built by Catherine de Medici after the death of her husband Henri II, it stretched across and through what today is the Jardin des Tuileries.
Working with architect Philibert de l’Orme in 1564 she designed a Renaissance palace covered in her iconography that would eventually connect and enclose the western end of the Louvre. Three hundred years of royalty would use the palace including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who would spend more than two years under supervision after they were removed from Versailles.
Napoleon I used the Palais des Tuileries as his official residence and spent each night with a certain lady of the Louvre in his bedroom, the Mona Lisa. However, the grandness of the palace ended on 23 May 1871.
It was the days of the Paris Commune and a dozen men set out, torches and gas in hand, and set the Tuileries on fire. The fire would rage for two days and would destroy the historic palace, thankfully stopping before reaching too far into the Louvre and damaging any art. The ruins of the palace would stand for over 12 years and finally be torn down 140 years ago in 1883.
We can still find a bit of the palace sprinkled throughout the city. You may never even know you walked past or sat on a bench on a lovely summer day in front of these historic remnants. On the southern side of the Jardin des Tuileries is a former arch, partially rebuilt that rises over the terrace that few people even notice. Inside the Musée du Louvre in the Cour Marly is another large window archway.
The fun really starts when you venture out to the many Paris parks. Just behind the Musée Carnavalet in the Square Georges Cain are the pavilion's remains that once included a clock. You can see the visible black damage from the flames, a slice of history in an often overlooked park. Columns can be found in the courtyard of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and an archway in the side garden of the Trocadero far away from the hordes of people.