Description of the attraction
La Défense, a modern business and residential neighborhood, "Parisian Manhattan", was built where a poor suburban area used to be. Old small factories, hovels, and a few farms - it was a marginal place. But during the era of President de Gaulle, who was striving for the technological modernization of the country, it was there that a new quarter was born, which is now considered the largest business center in Europe.
Development began in 1958 after the emergence of EPAD, a government agency created specifically to relieve the burden of old Paris and develop a new area. The name - La Defense - comes from the name of the monument La Défense de Paris ("Defense of Paris") in honor of the soldiers who fought here during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.
In the new district, the traffic of pedestrians and cars was separated: under a huge concrete esplanade (more than a kilometer in length and 250 meters in width) there are roads, railways, a station and a parking lot. Also below are the underground floors of skyscrapers and all communications.
More than 8 million tourists visit La Defense every year. What attracts them to the business district? Dozens of skyscrapers of original architecture, whose cold minimalism is set off by urban sculptures of bright colors and rather unusual appearance, a musical fountain and, of course, the Great Arch.
The Great Arch is located on the east-west historical axis of Paris and is visible from the city center through two other famous arches - the Arc de Triomphe and the Carousel. The contrast between the old buildings and the high-tech business district is impressive. The dream of continuing the historical axis of the city arose even in the minds of Presidents Pompidou and D'Estaing, but it came true only in 1989, under Mitterrand. The competition was attended by 484 projects from all over the world. The winner, Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, dedicated his project not to military victories, but to the ideas of humanism. The arch is a high (110 meters) hollow cube of white Carrara marble and granite, sheathed with glass panels, inside - a fiberglass "cloud" on cables. Glass lifts lifted tourists to the rooftop observation deck. Roof access is now closed to visitors - perhaps forever.
