The Île de la Cité (; "Island of the City"Pronunciation of Île de la Cité at PronounceItRight.com (retrieved 6 October 2015)) is one of two natural islands on the Seine River (alongside Île Saint-Louis) in central Paris. It spans of land. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the area governor for the Roman Empire. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his castle on the island. An early cathedral was built. In the 12th century, its importance as a religious centre increased with the building of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the castle chapel of Sainte-Chapelle. The city hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu, possibly the oldest continuously operating hospital in the world, is also based on the island. Nearby is the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf.
Even with the departure of the French kings to the Louvre Palace across the right bank, and later to the Palace of Versailles, the island remained a centre of administration and law courts. In 1302, it hosted the first meeting of the Parlement of Paris in the old royal palace and was later the site of the trials of aristocrats during the French Revolution. Today, in addition to the prominent cathedral and other shrines, it is the home of the Préfecture de Police, the Palais de Justice, and the Tribunal de commerce de Paris. The Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, a memorial to the 200,000 people deported from Vichy France to Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War, is located at the eastern end of the island. As of 2016, the island's population was 891.
History Early history
A Gallic settlement, called Lutetia, may have existed on the island since at least the 3rd century BC. The nearby area was inhabited by the Parisii, a small Gallic tribe. The island may have served them as a convenient place to cross the Seine, a base for a flourishing trading network by river, and a place of refuge in times of invasion. However, no significant traces of a settlement earlier than the 1st century AD have been found to date on the island.
The Parisii were famous traders, taking advantage of the trade routes by river throughout Europe. Coins minted by the Parisii, dating to about 100 BC, have been found in excavations across France and other parts of Europe. The island was the most convenient river crossing point, with bridges on both sides of the island.
The first recorded mention of the island is in the "Commentaries" of Julius Caesar. In 53 BC, during the conquest of Gaul, Caesar came to Lutetia and met with the leaders of the Gallic tribes. They agreed to submit to Rome, but then almost immediately rebelled. Caesar sent one of his generals, Titus Labienus, to subdue the Parisii. The Parisii burned the bridges to prevent his passage, but they were outmaneuvered and defeated in battle on the Plain of Auteuil.
An academic debate about the original location of Lutetia began in 2006, following the excavation in 1994–2005 of a large Gallic necropolis, with residences and temples, at Nanterre, along the Seine in the Paris suburbs. Some historians have put forward this settlement at Nanterre as the Lutetia of the Gauls, rather than Île de la Cité. Other historians point out that Caesar described "Lutetia, fortress ('oppidum') of the Parisii, situated on an island." They say that the absence of traces of pre-Roman settlement discovered so far on Île de la Cité is due primarily to the continuous building and rebuilding on the island over the centuries.
After the conquest of the Parisii, the Roman town of Lutetia developed mainly on the Left Bank, where the temples and baths were located. However, in the 3rd century AD, a series of invasions by Germanic tribes began; the Roman town on the left bank was sacked in 275–76. Afterwards, the left bank was largely abandoned. Beginning in 307 AD, the forum, amphitheater, and other structures were demolished and the stone was used to construct a rampart around the island, as well as to construct new buildings. The stone wall was not very high - only about two meters - but was apparently topped by a further wooden palisade. The island became an important defensive position on the northern flank of the Roman Empire. In 451, during the late Roman Empire, when the Huns occupied the left bank, Saint Genevieve led the defence of the city from the island.
The Roman Emperor Julian, residing in Gaul from 355 to 361, described "a small island lying in the river; a wall entirely surrounds it, and wooden bridges lead to it on both sides."Julianus Augustus. Misopogon 340d. At what was then the western end of the island was the residence of the Roman governor, near the present Palais de Justice. It was described as a "Palace", but appears to have been a very modest residence.
The Romans also built a new wharf, where the Parvis Notre-Dame – Place Jean-Paul II is today. The island was much smaller then; the Roman wharf is now well inland, far from the present edge of the island. Remains of the wharf can be seen in the archeological crypt under the Parvis, in front of Notre-Dame de Paris. One important monument left by the Parisii was discovered here: the Pillar of the Boatmen, a group of statues erected by the boatmen of the city in the 1st century AD, honouring both Roman and Gallic gods.
In addition to the residence of the Roman governor, the island contained the civic basilica, which held the courts of justice. It was located near the present flower market and Metro station, and was a large rectangular building 70 by 35 meters in size, with a central nave and two collateral aisles. Its foundations were discovered during the construction of the Metro station in 1906. It, too, was built with stones taken from the forum on the Left Bank.
In 486, Saint Genevieve negotiated the submission of Paris to Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, who chose Paris as his capital, in 508. The first cathedral of Paris, that of Saint Étienne, was constructed in 540–545, close to the west front of the present Notre Dame de Paris and just a few hundred meters from the Royal Palace.
Hugh Capet (c. 941–996), the founder of the Capetian dynasty, began as ruler of a kingdom not much larger than the Paris region, but through conquest and marriage, he and his descendants made the Kingdom of France into an important European power. The visible symbol of Capetian power was the Palais de la Cité, which he and his descendants enlarged and embellished. Philippe IV built the Grand Chamber and new walls, with two towers: the Tower of Caesar and the Tower of Silver. Louis VI (1081–1137) tore down the old tower and built an even larger one, which remained until the 18th century.
12th–17th century
Louis IX built his new chapel, the jewel-like Sainte-Chapelle, between 1242 and 1248. During the same period, the most famous landmark of the island was constructed: the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. An earlier cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne, had been constructed in the Romanesque style. In 1160, the bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, began construction of a cathedral in the new Gothic style, to match the magnificence of the palace. The first stones of the foundation of the new cathedral were laid by Pope Alexander III, in 1163. Its construction spanned two centuries.
During this period, new streets and houses were constructed on the island, which became more and more densely populated. The crowding of the island, and the resulting problems of narrow streets jammed with traffic, pollution, and foul smells, caused the Kings of France to search for a new residence. A rebellion of the Parisians in 1358, led by Étienne Marcel, the provost of the merchants, at a time when the French King was a hostage of the English, caused the next King, Charles V of France, to move his residence to the edge of the city: first to the Hôtel Saint-Pol, then to the Bastille, and finally to the Louvre Palace.
In the following centuries, after the Kings departed, the island retained its importance as an administrative centre. It was home to the courts and tribunals, as well as the Parlement of Paris: an assembly of nobles who formally registered royal proclamations. It included the Conciergerie, which contained the royal prisons and judicial offices. Other important transformations were made to the island. In 1585, work began on the Pont Neuf at the far west end of the island. In 1607, Henry IV gave up the royal garden on the island, which was transformed into the Place Dauphine, and the Pont Neuf was completed.
When the Pont Neuf was built, two small islands, Île à la Gourdaine and Île aux Juifs, which were just to the west of the island, were joined to it. The Ilot des Juifs had been the site of the burning at the stake of Jacques de Molay, the leader of the Knights Templar, in 1314, as the island was just below the towers of the Royal Palace. The junction of the small islands was completed in 1607, and the land was developed into the Place Dauphine and the Square du Vert-Galant.
Henry IV began the practice of selling lots on the island for private townhouses, particularly the development of the Place Dauphine at the east end of the island. In the same century, Louis XIII made a major improvement to the island by building stone river banks to contain the river. This did not prevent a major flood of the Seine in 1689–90, which ruined the lower stained glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle.
18th century
In the 18th century, the Conciergerie on the island became the scene of some of the most dramatic events of the French Revolution. In 1788, the Constituent Assembly, meeting in the former royal palace, refused the demands of Louis XVI to turn over some of its members. In 1790, Jean Sylvain Baily, the mayor of Paris, sealed the doors of the royal palace. In August 1793, Queen Marie-Antoinette was taken to the Conciergerie, where she was imprisoned. After two and a half months she was tried, convicted, and sentenced to the guillotine. In September 1793, the radical Sans-Culottes stormed the Conciergerie and massacred the remaining royalist prisoners. On 27 July 1794, it was the turn of the revolutionary leader Robespierre to be arrested, brought to the Conciergerie, tried, and sent to the guillotine.
Notre-Dame de Paris also suffered during the French Revolution; it was closed and then turned into a Temple of Reason; much of the sculpture – particularly in the portals on the west front – was defaced or destroyed. The neighbouring Hôtel-Dieu hospital sounded too religious for the secular revolutionaries, so its name was changed to the "House of Humanity". Restoration of the revolutionary damage did not begin until the 1830s, particularly following the success of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
19th–21st centuries
In the early 19th century, with the restoration of the monarchy, the old palace was substantially rebuilt for its function as the centre of the judicial system. An expiatory chapel was built where the cell of Marie-Antoinette had been. Between 1820 and 1828, the façade between the Tower of the Horloge and the Tower of Bonbec was rebuilt. It remained a prison; the future Napoleon III was imprisoned there for a time following a failed attempt to overthrow the government.
In the mid-19th century, the island was overcrowded, with narrow streets and poor sanitation. It was hard hit by major cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1849, which killed thousands of Parisians. The new president, and then Emperor, Napoleon III, ordered the demolition of the old streets and buildings and the opening of wide avenues and squares. The Parvis in front of the cathedral was greatly increased in size. In 1867, Napoleon III also demolished the overcrowded medieval hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu, and replaced it with the present building.