From the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, I walked back to the Île de la Cité, with a single minded objective - to visit the Crypte Archéologique du Parvis Notre-Dame...
Right across the Notre-Dame Cathedral lie the crypts or Crypte Archéologique du Parvis Notre-Dame - an important archaeological site which was discovered by accident!
This site was discovered by accident in the 1960s when workmen were digging here to make a parking lot. And voila, they discovered building walls, structures and foundations dating back 2000 years, in the Roman era...
The fragments tell us how Paris has been constantly evolving over the centuries...
Before the Roman invasion, Île de la Cité had been the site of an oppidum (settlement) of the Parisii, a Celtic-Gallic tribe. Paris derives its name from the Parisii. The Romans invaded Gaul in the first century AD, defeated the Gauls at Melun (close to Fontainebleau) and then overran this area that we call Paris today. The Romans named their settlement here Lutetia...
And now that rings a bell - I can imagine the Gauls (Asterix and Obelix) fighting and hunting down the Romans...
A plan of Lutetia with Île de la Cité in the centre...
Paris became the capital of the French kings in the Middle Ages and it was between 1190 and 1213, Phillip II constructed a protective wall around the city. In 1364, Charles V left the Conciergerie in Île de la Cité and moved the royal base to the Louvre. That was when a second wall was built on right bank to protect the new suburbs...
The Seine played an important role in the history of this city right from the Parisii to the Romans to medieval kings to the Paris of today...
While legends surrounding Lutetia had been there in local folklore and Roman literature as well as the works of local writers like Victor Hugo, its existence was long regarded as a myth...
Thanks to these discoveries, modern Parisians have rediscovered Lutetia...
Victor Hugo attempted to trace the history of Paris from the days of the Parisiis in his works...
An impression of Roman Lutetia. which was featured in first features in Asterix and the Golden Sickle! God! I just can't get over Asterix and Obelix...
The Romans recycled the stones used by the original inhabitants for the structures they built here...
The Roman baths...
The Lutetia amphitheatre...
Roman ruins...
The Roman Forum...
A Roman arch...
The Romans used quays on the Seine for loading and unloading boats...
The waterways were the economic veins of the Roman Empire...
A cellar...
Construction of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in 1163 marked a new era in the life of Paris...
Various stages of the construction of the Notre-Dame...
Foundations of medieval houses...
An archway...
Medieval Paris...
Vestibule of Foundlings Chapel...
And Paris expands...
Expansion of Paris under Louis XIII and Louis XIV...
Modernisation of Paris began in the 18th century...
Thermal baths...
A building wall...
It felt as though I had gone to age of the Romans in Lutetia...
It was only when I exited the crypt did I realise I was in modern day Paris!
No comments:
Post a Comment