Place du Châtelet

Châtelet means “small castle”. The name of the place comes actually from a fortress which was built here in the 9th century to defend Paris from the Vikings. From the beginning built in wood, it was rebuilt in stone during the 11th century. Its military function soon disappeared and it was later rather a prison and law-court. The fortress was later surrounded by different buildings and you can only see the top of it on this illustration from 1580. … as you can also see the top of the tower of the Saint Jacques church. The tower (from 1522) is still there (under restoration, so again you can only see the top), but the church is gone.

The Châtelet fortress was destroyed in 1802 and Napoleon I (I’m sorry, it’s he again) decided to convert the place to an open place, including the construction of a column, later placed on a fountain, the one we can see today. It got the name “La Fontaine du Palmier” (The Palm Fountain) because of the palm leaves that can be seen in the top of the column, just under the statue “Victoire”. The column is full of names of different Napoleon victories (of course).

The place got its present aspect under Napoleon III. Two theatres were built, Théatre de la Ville (or Théatre Lyrique) and Théatre du Châtelet, both from 1862, and the fountain was slightly moved to be in the centre of the place. The theatres have changed names several times. Theatre de la Ville got the name of Sarah Bernhardt from 1899 to 1923, when she was in charge and regularly performed here. They now belong to the City of Paris.

The comparison between 1876 and today shows hardly any difference except for the express road (Voie Pompidou) which was built along part of the river in the 1960’s (transformed to Paris Beach in August each year).

The bridge in front is called “Pont de Change” and dates from about the same time as the renewed place (1860).

To find the place on the Paris map, I suggest you go to my previous post about Rue St. Denis. Some of the above pictures can be found on my photo blog.