Haussmann, Baron Georges-Eugène

Historical Context

After the coup of 1851 that established the Second Empire in France, the complete lack of grandeur that its capital displayed proved unbearable for its Emperor, Napoléon III. Its sanitary conditions were appalling, demanding a heavy toll from epidemic diseases. Its road infrastructure was incapable of handling traffic, which had increased dramatically since 1842, when Paris became the national railway hub. Its townscape was more reminiscent of the late Middle Ages than of a modern representative capital.

The city government was slow to react to Napoleon's growing pressure to intervene. After two years, the Emperor lost patience. He sacked aldermen and council. By appointing Georges-Eugène Haussmann as prefect of the Seine, he initiated the largest urban renewal project Europe had ever witnessed.

Although not trained as an architect, Haussmann had demonstrated his skills as a ruthless manager as a Prefect of various départments. In Paris, he immediately set out to reorganize the public works department. He replaced its staff with talented engineers, architects, and surveyors, who produced Paris's first reliable and detailed city map. On it, Haussmann drew his first major intervention, the Grande Croisée.

The First Initiative

Starting from the northern and eastern railway stations, he projected a major street cutting right through the city's core, the Boulevard Sébastopol, crossing the Seine at the Ile de la Cité, and continuing its devastating course on the South Bank as the Boulevard Saint Michel until it reached Montparnasse. The Ile de la Cité was almost completely razed, providing room for impressive new administrative buildings and isolating Notre Dame de Paris from its decrepit surroundings, showing the cathedral in all its splendor.

This major new artery met with the Rue de Rivoli, a street dating back to Napoléon I, at Châtelet, turning this square close to city hall into the focus of Paris. Its eastern extension, although never fully realized, found its pinnacle at today's Place de la Bastille, mirroring its western counterpart, the Place d'Étoile.

Unlike his predecessors, Haussmann did not see the Great Crossing as an isolated intervention. Rather, he linked it to a number of secondary streets, thus demonstrating that he conceived of the city as a whole. Until 1850, Paris had been a collection of rather isolated quarters. In 1870, the year of Haussmann's abdication, the city's infrastructure had become a veritable network.

Improving Lifestyle and Appearance

The surgical operations in the dense urban fabric served more purposes. Most new arteries were planned to destroy as many slums as possible, ridding Paris of its vast army of beggars, rag pickers, and marginal craftsmen. Under the surface of the new boulevards, Haussmann created a subterranean infrastructure for the provision of gas, sewage, and drinking water, thus adding substantially to residential hygiene and comfort.

...