The
Bastille was a fortress-prison in Paris
, known
formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine—Number 232, Rue
Saint-Antoine—best known today because of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July
1789, which along with the Tennis
Court Oath is considered the beginning of the French Revolution. The event was
commemorated one year later by the
FĂŞte de la
Fédération. The French
national
holiday, celebrated annually on
14 July
is officially the
FĂŞte Nationale, and officially
commemorates the
Fête de la Fédération, but it is commonly
known in English as
Bastille Day.
Bastille is a
French word
meaning "
castle" or "stronghold", or
"bastion"; used with a definite article (
la Bastille in
French,
the Bastille in English), it refers to the
prison.
Early history of the Bastille
The Bastille was built as the
Bastion de
Saint-Antoine during the
Hundred Years' War. The Bastille
originated as the Saint-Antoine gate, but from 1370–1383 this gate
was extended to create a fortress to defend the east end of Paris
and the
HĂ´tel Saint-Pol royal
palace. After the war, it was reused as a state prison, with
Louis XIII the first king to
send prisoners there.
Plan of the Bastille.
The Bastille was built as an irregular rectangle with eight towers,
70 meters (220 ft) long, 30 meters (90 ft) wide, with towers and
walls 25 meters (80 ft) high, surrounded by a broad moat.
Originally there were two courtyards inside and residential
buildings against the walls. Pairs of towers on the east and west
facades served as gates through which the rue Saint-Antoine passed.
In the 1400s, these were blocked up, and a new city gate was
created to the north on the present day rue de la Bastille. A
bastion on the eastern approaches was built
later. A very significant military feature of the building was that
the walls and towers were of the same height and width and
connected by a broad terrace. This enabled soldiers on the wall
head to rapidly move to a threatened sector of the fortress without
having to descend inside the towers, as well as allowing placement
of artillery.
A similar provision can be seen today at
Château de Tarascon
.
Storming
The archives of the Bastille show that the building largely held
common criminals (forgers, embezzlers, swindlers, etc.), as well as
people imprisoned for religious reasons (Huguenots) and those
responsible for printing or writing forbidden pamphlets . People of
high rank were sometimes held there too, and so the prison (which
could only hold a little over 50 people) was far less sordid a
place than most of the Parisian prisons. Butthe secrecy maintained
around the Bastille and its prisoners gave it a sinister
reputation.
The confrontation that led to the people of Paris storming the
Bastille on 14 July 1789, following several days of disturbances,
resulted from the fact that gunpowder and arms had been stored
there, and the people (whose fears had been raised by a number of
rumors) demanded access to these. The later idea that they wanted
to free the prisoners (only 7 of whom remained) has been
discounted. The regular garrison consisted of 82
invalides
(veteran soldiers no longer capable of service in the field) under
Governor
Bernard-René de
Launay. They had however been reinforced by a detachment of 32
grenadiers from one of the
Swiss mercenary regiments summoned to Paris
by the King shortly before 14 July.
A crowd of around 8800 men and women gathered outside around
mid-morning, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal
of the guns and the release of the arms and gunpowder. Two people
chosen to represent those gathered were invited into the fortress
and slow negotiations began.
Regimental flag flown over the
Bastille at the time of the French Revolution.
In the early afternoon around 1:00, the crowd broke into the
undefended outer courtyard and the chains on the
drawbridge to the inner courtyard were cut. A
spasmodic exchange of gunfire began; in mid-afternoon the crowd was
reinforced by mutinous
Gardes
Françaises of the Royal Army, and two cannons, all of which
were originally supposed to help the governor protect the prison.
De Launay ordered a ceasefire; in spite of his surrender demands
being refused, he capitulated and the
vainqueurs swept in
to liberate the fortress at around 5:30.
When the rioters entered the Bastille, they collected cartridges
and gunpowder for their weapons and then freed the seven prisoners
(which they had to do by breaking down the doors, since the keys
had already been taken off and paraded through the streets). Later,
the governor and some of the guards of the Bastille were killed
under chaotic circumstances, despite having surrendered under a
flag of truce, and their heads paraded on pikes.
As a
symbolic gesture, the key to the west portal of the Bastille was
presented on March 17, 1790 by Marquis de Lafayette to George Washington and now resides in
George Washington's home at
Mount
Vernon
.
Demolition
The
propaganda value of the Bastille was
quickly seized upon, notably by the showy entrepreneur
Pierre-François Palloy,
"Patriote Palloy". The fate of the Bastille was uncertain, but
Palloy was quick to establish a claim, organising a force of
demolition men around the site on the 15th. Over the next few days
many notables visited the Bastille and it seemed to be turning into
a memorial. But Palloy secured a license for demolition from the
Permanent Committee at the HĂ´tel de Ville and quickly took complete
control.
Pierre-François Palloy secured a fair budget and his crew grew in
number. He had control over all aspects of the work and the
workers, even to the extent of having two hanged for murder. Palloy
put much effort into continuing the site as a paying attraction and
producing a huge range of souvenirs, including much of the rubble.
The actual demolition proceeded apace; by November, 1789, the
structure was largely demolished.
The cut stones of the fortress were used
in the construction of the Pont de la Concorde 
.
The area today
The former
location of the fort is currently called the Place de la
Bastille
. It is home to the Opéra
Bastille
. The large ditch (fossé) behind the
fort has been transformed into a marina for
pleasure boats, the Bassin de l'Arsenal
, to the south, and a covered canal, the Canal Saint Martin
, extending north from the marina beneath the
vehicular roundabout that borders the location of the
fort.
Some
undemolished remains of one tower of the fort were discovered
during excavation for the MĂ©tro
(rail mass-transit system) in 1899, and were moved
to a park (the Square
Henri-Galli) a few hundred meters away, where they are
displayed today. The original outline of the fort is also
marked on the pavement of streets and sidewalks that pass over its
former location, in the form of special paving stones. A cafe and
some other businesses largely occupy the location of the fort, and
the
rue Saint Antoine
passes directly over it as it opens onto the roundabout of the
Bastille.
Bastille Prisoners in Fiction
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Misc
Search
