Urban Development
Figure [I] Map of Paris published in 1553 by Olivier Truschet and Germain Hoya.
Urban Development
Paris starts from the third century BCE because of the trade, the route across the Seine on the île de la Cité is the meeting route of the businessman. And this area of land and water became a commerce city. The first official Era of Paris is the Medieval period, specifically from 12 century to 16 century. During the late 12 century, the region improved a lot, streets were paved, the city wall was enlarged, and a large number of new towns were created. With 80,000 inhabitants, Paris became in the 13th century the biggest city in Christian Europe. The 14th century, however, brought darker times: the population was reduced by famine between 1315 and 1317 and by plague in 1348-49. [1] After the hundreds years’ war and plague, the kingdom back to peace and prosperity, and the population increased quickly.
City Walls
Moreover, city walls are very important for a city, it is a border and protector of the city. The first city wall was about 1700 meters long with thirty towers and four to six gates and built in the 11th century on the Right Bank to protect the nearby areas. This map of Paris published in 1553 by Olivier Truschet and Germain Hoya documents the growth of Paris within its medieval walls and the faubourgs beyond the walls.[I] By 1180, King Philip II decided to build a new wall entirely around the city both on Right Bank and Left Bank. The new wall was 5,400 meters long (2800 on the Right Bank and 2600 on the Left Bank), with ten gates and seventy-five towers, and surrounded about 273 hectares. Between 1358 and 1371, Charles V built another new wall 4900 meters long to enclose 439 hectares. [2] There are also new weapons like cannon invented to protect the city in a more direct way, so the construction of new walls also need to be remolded to fit with new weapons and also added a strong rampart. And there were no more new walls built until the end of Medieval period.
Univeristy
Another important infrastructure of a city is the school, the first university is University of Paris as the Notre-Dame Cathedral school in 1150 and officially chartered in 1200 by King Philip II. From 1250, 700 “scholars” were housed in roughly 60 colleges, where they received rooms in return for giving lessons at Robert de Sorbon. [1][II] In 1469, during Louis XI’s reign (1461–83), the Sorbonne installed the first printing press in Paris.[3] By the end of the Middle Ages, the University of Paris accommodated 20,000 students and became the biggest cultural center in Europe. It owed its reputation from not only its teachers but also to its papal libraries which stored various of books.
Resources
[1] Middle Age http://www.paris-city.fr/GB/paris-city/au-fil-du-temps/moyen-age.php
[2] Fierro, Alfred (1996). Histoire et dictionnaire de Paris. Robert Laffont
[3]Ehrlich, B., & Daul, K. (2018, July 06). Paris. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Paris/Medieval-development-and-discord-12th-century-to-16th-century
[I] Map of Paris published in 1553 by Olivier Truschet and Germain Hoya.
http://imagebase.ubvu.vu.nl/cdm/ref/collection/krt/id/1763
[II] Sorbonne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbonne#/media/File:Front_of_the_Sorbonne.jpg