Description of the attraction
The gate of Saint-Denis is called the arch located at the intersection of the streets Saint-Denis, Faubourg Saint-Denis, boulevard de Bon Nouvelle and boulevard Saint-Denis. In fact, this is a triumphal arch, erected in honor of military victories.
The gate was installed here to commemorate the victories of King Louis XIV in the Dutch War of 1672-1678. This war spread throughout Europe and at first was absolutely victorious for the king: in less than two months in Flanders and on the banks of the Rhine, he took more than four dozen Dutch fortresses. It was then that Louis ordered the erection of the gates of Saint-Denis.
The gate was built according to the project of the director of the Royal Academy of Architecture Francois Blondel, who took the triumphal Arch of Titus in Rome as a model. The place for the construction was chosen as a historical one: under Charles V, a bastion gate in the medieval city wall was located here.
The gate turned out to be majestic: height - 25 meters, total width - 24 meters, span - 8 meters. Each of the facades is decorated with sculptures and reliefs depicting the victories of the Sun King. On the east side, you can see the symbols of victories on the Rhine, on the west - in Flanders. The northern side captured the capture of Maastricht, the southern side - the crossing of the Rhine. In the gates there are special passages for commoners who could accompany the king's cortege.
The gate was built in 1672, when the end of the war was still far away. By 1678, when the Peace of Nimwegen was signed, the victorious France suffered such losses that the country's budgetary balance was disturbed, and popular unrest began. Nevertheless, the gate became an impressive monument of the country's military glory, one of the finest examples of early French classicism.
There was another military page in the history of the gate. During the June Revolution of 1848, a bloody battle between the insurgent Parisian workers and the Republican Guards took place near them. The battle was fought with cannons and cavalry. Dozens of Parisians died.
