Ile de la Cité

The Ile de la Cité is the historical and geographical center of Paris. Here, on the little island protected by two arms of the Seine, a Celtic tribe, the Parisii, established a settlement in the third century B.C. Here too the Romans built the Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia, and here the inhabitants of the city sought refuge during raids by Germanic tribes, Norsemen and Huns.

It was only in the High Middle Ages that the city was able to establish a durable presence on the two banks of the Seine and a center of power and authority. From the sixth to the 14th century the kings of France resided on the island, on which were the secular palace and its religious counterpart, Notre-Dame, the "Cathedral of France". When the royal residence was transferred elsewhere the aspect of the Ile de la Cité changed, since it was no longer necessary to have spacious streets and squares for the festivities of the court. There now grew up a dense huddle of narrow lanes and closely packed houses in the shadow of the Gothic towers of Notre-Dame. In the 19th century the aspect of the Cité was again radically altered by Baron Haussmann. In a massive campaign of clearance and redevelopment which involved the rehousing of more than 25,000 people space was cleared for the broad avenues running north-south through Paris, the Préfecture de Police, the Tribunal de Commerce, the extension to the Palais de Justice and the rebuilding of the Hôtel Dieu, and an unobstructed view of Notre Dame was opened up on all sides. With only a few exceptions the historic core of the city was transformed, so that the Cité is no longer the "old town" of Paris in the sense in which that term is usually employed.