Paris · City Walks
Place de la Bastille
Le Marais · Paris, France
Place de la Bastille is where the French Revolution began, on the site of the old Bastille prison. It's a place where the history of democracy, born of countless sacrifices, is written into the ground. The fall of the Bastille in 1789 launched the Revolution.
No trace of the prison remains, but at the center of the square stands the July Column, a monument to the victims of the July Revolution of 1830; victims of the February Revolution of 1848 are buried beneath it. The Opéra Bastille, built under President Mitterrand to mark the Revolution's 200th anniversary, is here too. The square is a symbol of the French Revolution, of modern French history and of the story of democracy.
A fun fact: stones from the demolished Bastille were used to build the Pont de la Concorde.
