Place de la Bastille

The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris, where the Bastille prison stood until the 'Storming of the Bastille' and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution; no vestige of it remains.

The square straddles 3 arrondissements of Paris, namely the 4th, 11th and 12th. The square and its surrounding areas are normally called simply Bastille.

The July Column (Colonne de Juillet) which commemorates the events of the July Revolution (1830) stands at the center of the square. Other notable features include the Bastille Opera, the Bastille subway station and a section of the Canal Saint Martin. Prior to 1984, the former Bastille railway station stood where the opera house now stands.

The square is home to concerts and similar events. The north-eastern area of Bastille is busy at night with its many cafés, bars, night clubs, and concert halls.

As a consequence of its historical significance, the square is often the site or point of departure of political demonstrations, including the massive anti-CPE demonstration of 28 March 2006.

Bastille

The Bastille (French pronunciation: ​[bastij]) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789 in the French Revolution, becoming an important symbol for the French Republican movement, and was later demolished and replaced by the Place de la Bastille.

The Bastille was built to defend the eastern approach to the city of Paris from the English threat in the Hundred Years' War. Initial work began in 1357, but the main construction occurred from 1370 onwards, creating a strong fortress with eight towers that protected the strategic gateway of the Porte Saint-Antoine on the eastern edge of Paris. The innovative design proved influential in both France and England and was widely copied. The Bastille figured prominently in France's domestic conflicts, including the fighting between the rival factions of the Burgundians and the Armagnacs in the 15th century, and the Wars of Religion in the 16th. The fortress was declared a state prison in 1417; this role was expanded first under the English occupiers of the 1420s and 1430s, and then under Louis XI in the 1460s. The defences of the Bastille were fortified in response to the English and Imperial threat during the 1550s, with a bastion constructed to the east of the fortress. The Bastille played a key role in the rebellion of the Fronde and the battle of the faubourg Saint-Antoine, which was fought beneath its walls in 1652.

Bastille (Paris Métro)

Bastille is a station on lines 1, 5 and 8 of the Paris Métro. It is located near the former location of the Bastille and remains of the Bastille can be seen on line 5. The platforms for line 1 are situated below road level but above the Bassin of the Arsenal and Canal Saint Martin in a short open-air segment. The western end of the line 1 platforms have the sharpest curve used by passenger trains on the Métro, with a radius of only 40 metres. The line 1 platforms, at 123 metres long, are significantly longer than the average Métro platform length.

The line 1 station opened as part of the first stage of the line between Porte de Vincennes and Porte Maillot on 19 July 1900. The line 5 platforms were opened on 17 December 1906 when the line was extended from Gare de Lyon to Lancry (now known as Jacques Bonsergent). The line 8 platforms were opened on 5 May 1931 when the line was extended from Richelieu – Drouot to Porte de Charenton. The platforms on line 1 were decorated in 1989 to celebrate the bicentenary of the French Revolution.

Bastille (fortification)

A bastille is a form of urban fortification. A bastille is a fortification located at the principal entrance to a town or city; as such it is a similar type of fortification to a barbican, and the distinction between the two is frequently unclear. While today found in a variety of cities, such as Grenoble and Lubeck, the word bastille is associated above all with the famous bastille in Paris, the Saint Anthony Bastille, which played a prominent part in the history of France under its monarchy. Bastilles were often forts, but could be more similar to gatehouses in smaller settlements.

Like the word bastide, the word bastille derives from the word bastida in the southern French Occitan language, which can mean a fortification or fortified settlement.