Montmartre
Montmartre
is a hill in the north of Paris in the XVIIIe arrondissement, primarily
known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-C¦ur on its summit.
The other, older, church on the hill is Saint-Pierre de Montmartre,
which claims to be the location at which the Jesuit order of priests
was founded. The community on the hill is also called "Montmartre".
History
Saint
Denis, a Christian martyr, the bishop of Paris and the patron saint
of France, died around 250 on Montmartre. The martyrdom of Denis
gave the name of Montmartre, in French literally the mountain of
the martyr.
During the 19th century, when Napoleon III and his city planner
Baron Haussmann planned to make Paris the most beautiful city in
Europe, a first step was to grant large sweeps of land near the
center of the city to Haussmann's friends and financial supporters.
This drove the original inhabitants to the edges of the city ‹ to
the districts of Clichy, La Villette, and the hill with a view of
the city, Montmartre. Since Montmartre was outside the city limits,
free of Paris taxes and no doubt also due to the fact that the local
nuns made wine, the hill quickly became a popular drinking area.
The area developed into a center of free-wheeling and decadent entertainment
at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
In the popular cabaret the Moulin Rouge, and at Le Chat Noir, artists,
singers and performers regularly appeared including Yvette Guilbert,
Marcelle Lender, Aristide Bruant, La Goulue, Georges Guibourg, Mistinguett,
Fréhel, Jane Avril, Damia and others. Basilica of the Sacré C¦ur
was built on Montmartre from 1876 to 1912 by public subscription
as a gesture of expiation after the defeat of 1871 in the Franco-Prussian
War. Its white dome is a highly visible landmark in the city, where
just below it artists still set up their easels each day amidst
the tables and colorful umbrellas of Place du Tertre.
In the mid-1800s artists, such as Johan Jongkind and Camille Pissarro,
came to inhabit Montmartre. By the end of the century, Montmartre
and its counterpart on the Left Bank, Montparnasse, became the principal
artistic centers of Paris. Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and
other impoverished artists lived and worked in a commune, a building
called Le Bateau-Lavoir during the years 1904?1909. Artist associations
such as Les Nabis and the Incoherents were formed and individuals
including Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Brissaud, Alfred Jarry, Gen Paul,
Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Henri Matisse, André Derain,
Suzanne Valadon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Maurice Utrillo,
Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile Steinlen worked in Montmartre and drew
some of their inspiration from the area. The last of the bohemian
Montmartre artists was Gen Paul (1895?1975), born in Montmartre
and a friend of Utrillo, Paul's calligraphic expressionist lithographs,
sometimes memorializing picturesque Montmartre itself, owe a lot
to Raoul Dufy.
Just off the top of the butte, Espace Salvador Dalí showcases surrealist
artist Salvador Dalí's work. Nearby, day and night, tourists visit
such sights as the artists in Place du Tertre and the cabaret du
Lapin Agile. Many renowned artists are buried in the Cimetière de
Montmartre and the Cimetière Saint-Vincent. The Musée de Montmartre
is in the house where the painter Maurice Utrillo lived and worked
in a second-floor studio.
Also in the 18th arrondissment :
Downhill
to the southwest is the red-light district of Pigalle. That area
is, today, largely known for a wide variety of sex shops and prostitutes.
The Moulin-Rouge.
LINK : site
of Moulin Rouge
Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
LINK : Site
of Basilica of the Sacred Heart
Espace Salvador Dali.
LINK : site
de Salvatore Dali
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