Bastille's Place

Constructed between 1370 and 1383 during King Charles V's rule, the Bastille initially served as a defensive fortification for Paris. In the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister to King Louis XIII, repurposed it as a state prison. This period saw the Bastille primarily detaining political and religious dissenters, rebellious writers, and wayward youths confined at their families' behest. It gained infamy as the primary detention center for individuals seized under the King of France's lettres de cachet.

By the late 1700s, the Bastille's structure comprised eight tightly-clustered towers, each around 24 meters (80 feet) tall, encircling two courtyards and an armory. Prisoners were held in rooms within the 5 to 7-story towers, each room being roughly 4.6 meters (15 feet) in diameter, outfitted with basic furnishings. The once-used, vermin-ridden cachots (dungeons) beneath the prison had fallen into disuse during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, who both aimed to reform France's penal system. The prison's governor received a daily allowance for each inmate, varying based on the prisoner's status, from nineteen livres for scholars to three for common prisoners. Despite offering better conditions than many French prisons, such as the feared Bicêtre in Paris, literary portrayals often depicted the Bastille as a symbol of tyranny and a bastion of terror and repression.

The conflict between ordinary citizens and the old French political system escalated, leading to the storming of the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789. This followed several days of unrest. By then, the Bastille held only seven prisoners: four for forgery, two deemed insane, and a young nobleman who had upset his father. The usual guards were about 80 retired soldiers, led by Governor Bernard-René de Launay, and were joined by 32 Swiss grenadiers called to Paris by the King before July 14.

Around 600 people gathered outside the Bastille by mid-morning, demanding the prison's surrender, removal of its guns, and release of weapons and gunpowder. Two representatives from the crowd entered for slow negotiations.

In the afternoon, the crowd entered the outer courtyard, severing the chains of the drawbridge to the inner courtyard. An intermittent shootout ensued. By mid-afternoon, the crowd grew with the addition of rebellious French Guards and two cannons. Despite de Launay's ceasefire and refusal of his surrender conditions, he yielded, and the fortress was overtaken around 5:30, freeing it from control.

On June 16, 1792, the site of the former Bastille prison in Paris was designated for a liberty square, with plans for a commemorative column. The initial foundation stone was placed by Palloy, but the project was abandoned, leading to the construction of a fountain in 1793 instead.

By 1808, under Napoléon's rule and amid numerous Parisian urban renovations, a proposal emerged for an elephant-shaped monument at this location, known as the Elephant of the Bastille. Envisioned to stand 24 meters tall and made from bronze of captured Spanish cannons, this structure was intended to include a staircase within one of its legs for access to the top. Only a plaster model of the elephant was ever constructed. This monument gained literary fame through Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," serving as a hideout for the character Gavroche. It was eventually demolished in 1846.

In 1833, the French King Louis-Philippe revived the original 1792 plan, leading to the construction of the July Column. This column was completed and inaugurated in 1840.

The Place de la Bastille now stands where a former fort once was. This site not only features the July Column but also the Opéra Bastille. The former fort's large ditch has been repurposed into the Bassin de l'Arsenal, a marina for leisure boats, situated to the south and flanked by the Boulevard de la Bastille. Northward lies a covered canal, the Canal Saint-Martin, which starts from the marina and runs under the traffic circle near the old fort's location, continuing about 4.4 kilometers towards the Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad.

Twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, a bustling open-air market springs up in the park north of the Place de la Bastille, along the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir. This market offers an array of items including fresh produce, fish, meat, cheese, bread, clothing, and typical market goods.

Interestingly, remnants of one of the fort's towers, uncovered during the 1899 Métro excavation, were relocated to the Square Henri-Galli, a nearby park, where they are now on display. The fort's original perimeter is marked on the streets and walkways above its past location with distinctive paving stones. Today, a café and several other establishments occupy the fort's former site, with the Rue Saint-Antoine crossing right over it, leading to the Bastille roundabout.