Price: £450.00

• Date: 1845-1847
• Condition: AAA
• Colour: BW
• Size (cm): 54.5 x 75.5

Title: 'Plan von Paris'. Engraver: Scheda. J,

A superbly engraved and extremely detailed map of Paris.
The area's first inhabitants, a Celtic tribe named the Parisii give Paris its name. Its eponym, the City of Lights, dates from 1828 when it became the first city in Europe to light its main boulevards with gas street lamps along its Champs Elysees.

In January 1841, Thiers (Louis-Adolphe Thiers: French statesman and historian, first president of the Third French Republic) submitted to the Chamber of Deputies a plan for building a range of military fortifications around Paris. Known as the Thiers fortifications it consisted of wall around the City together with 16 star forts, as the outer defences. The project was completed in 1845. In the 20th century the wall was pulled down and was replaced by the Peripherique, the ring round around Paris.

The map shows a number of early railway lines. Railway transportation came to the city in 1837 with the opening of the railway line between Paris (Gare Saint Lazare) and St-Germain-en-Laye. Subsequently the line was extended and separate branches, to Rouen and to Versailles, were added. Gare se Austerlitz was built in 1840 as the terminal for the Chemin de Fer d’Orleans. Gare Montparnasse was also built in 1840 with another line to Versailles. In 1846 the line between Paris (Gare du Nord) and Lille (Chemin de Fer du Nord) was opened.

This is one o the last detailed plans of Paris before it was rebuilt. Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann was a French civic planner whose name is associated with the rebuilding of Paris. He was employed by Napoleon III in 1853 to 'modernize' Paris. Napoleon hoped that Paris could be moulded into a city with safer streets, better housing, more sanitary, hospitable communities and better traffic flow. Haussmann accomplished much of this by tearing up many of the old, twisting streets and rundown apartment houses, and replacing them with the wide, tree-lined boulevards and expansive gardens for which Paris is today famous. His work destroyed 60% of the medieval city.

The map has been dissected into 18 sections and laid on linen.
A finely executed strap work border surrounds the map. Scarce.