Description of the attraction
Place de la Bastille is named after the fortress, which from the end of the 18th century towered on the eastern outskirts of Paris. The fortress was ordered to be built by King Charles V specifically to ensure his own safety. The task could not be solved: in different eras, the Bastille was stormed seven times, and all seven times it surrendered without resistance.
The idea of setting up a prison for the nobles here came to Cardinal Richelieu. For imprisonment in the Bastille, a court decision was not required - a letter with the seal of the king, the so-called "lettre de cache", was enough. The most famous local prisoner was Voltaire: he sat here twice, and next to the Marquis de Sade.
The capture of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 was the prologue to the French Revolution. On the eve, crowds of people robbed bakeries. Then they seized an arsenal in the Invalides - 32,000 guns and old cannons. The ammunition was not there, but it was in the Bastille. The commandant of the fortress, the Marquis Lone, refused to open the gate. With the beginning of the assault, a fire broke out in the fortress, the soldiers did not defend it. The crowd broke into the Bastille. The Marquis Lone was torn to pieces.
In the diary of Louis XIV on this day, an entry was made: “Nothing. The Bastille was taken."
800 workers dismantled the fortress for three years. Today you can see its contours, laid out on the square with paving stones in a contrasting color. July 14 is now a national holiday in France. It is important to know, however, that initially the holiday was not established at all in honor of the taking of the Bastille, but in honor of a gala dinner held a year later on the occasion of the reconciliation of the king and the deputies, which signaled national harmony.
The central element of the square is the July Column, erected here in memory of the French Revolution of 1830. The column is also a memorial: at its base there is a crypt in which the remains of those who fell during the revolutions are buried.
Nearby is the Opera Bastille building. It is the largest and most modern opera house in Paris (its Grand Hall alone can seat 2,700 spectators). Opera Bastille has a reputation for being the most democratic: it is not considered reprehensible to go here even in jeans.
