Page 28 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Paris

26  INTRODUCING P ARIS

Renaissance Paris

At the end of the Hundred Years’ War with England, Paris was in a
terrible state. By the time the occupying English army had left in
1453, the city lay in ruins, with many houses burned. Louis XI
brought back prosperity and a new interest in art, architecture
and clothes. During the course of the 16th and 17th centuries,
French kings came under the spell of the Italian Renaissance.
Their architects made the first attempts at town planning, Extent of the City
creating elegant, uniform buildings and open urban spaces like 1590 Today
the magnificent Place Royale (the present Place des Vosges).

A Knight Preparing to Joust
The Place Royale was the setting
for jousting displays well into the
17th century.

Printing Press (1470) Jewel-
Religious tracts, mainly in Encrusted
Latin, were printed on the Pendant
first press at the Sorbonne. A sign of the
new prosperity,
jewels became
an important
part of dress.

Place Royale
Built by Henri IV in
1609, with grand
symmetrical houses
round an open, central space, this
Pont Notre-Dame was Paris’s first square. Home to
This bridge with its row of houses was built at the aristocracy, it was renamed
the start of the 15th century. The Pont Neuf Place des Vosges in 1800 (see pp98–9).
(1578–1607) was the first bridge without houses.

1453 End of the 1516 François I invites Leonardo
Hundred Years’ da Vinci to France. He brings the
War with England Mona Lisa with him
François I
1450 1460 1470 1480 1490 1500 1510 1520 1530

1469 First French printing
works starts operating at 1528 François I takes up
the Sorbonne residence in the Louvre

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