1856 Longuet City Plan or Map of Paris, France

This is a stunning 1856 Longuet city plan or map of Paris, France, during the reign of Napoleon III and the Second French Empire. The map illustrates the early stages of the Georges-Eugène Haussmann Renovations of Paris, which took place from 1853 - 1870.

A Closer Look

With the Louvre near the center, the map depicts Paris and its environs from St. Cloud and Sèvres in the west to Vincennes (and the Bois de Vincennes) in the east and from Aubervilliers and St. Ouen in the north to Arcueil and Vitry in the south. Paris' fortifications, known as the Thiers Wall (discussed below), are highlighted in green, and all 94 bastions are numbered. Inside the city walls, Paris' 12 arrondissements are numbered. (The expansion to 20 arrondissements did not happen until 1859.) Important buildings and monuments are shaded a darker purple than the rest of the city and identified. Among these are the Louvre, the Palais des Tuileries, the École Militare, the Champ de Mars, the Champs Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Madeleine. Hospitals, factories, docks, prisons, markets, and schools are labeled as well. The Jardin des Tuileries, the Jardin du Luxembourg, and the Jardin des Plantes all stand out in green. Rail lines are orange.

The Fortification of Paris

Shocked by the seizure of Paris by foreign enemies during the 1814 Battle of Paris, the French King Louis-Philippe (1830 - 48), commissioned a network of walls and forts he believed would make Paris impregnable. The project was met with immediate opposition, some of which claimed that the walls were not defensive but intended to control Parisians in the event of an anti-monarchal rebellion. Nonetheless, under a plan prepared by Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult (1759 - 1861), construction began in 1841. The completed fortifications, named the Thiers Wall after the French Prime Minister Adolphe Theirs (1797 - 1877), were, at enormous expense, completed in 1844. The walls were 33 kilometers long and consisted of 94 bastions, 17 gates, 23 minor road crossings, and 8 railroad gates. By 1919, advancements in military technology made the walls obsolete, leading them to be fully deconstructed by 1929 and replaced with the Boulevard Périphérique.

Publication History and Census

This map was published by Longuet (the successor to Simonneau) in Paris in 1856. We note a single cataloged example of the 1856 Longuet edition, which is part of the collection at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Eugène Andriveau-Goujon began publishing editions of this exact map as early as 1844 and continued publishing editions through at least 1855. (Examples of the 1844 and 1847 Andriveau-Goujon editions are part of the collection at the BnF.) Languet began publishing editions of this map as early as 1847.