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Urban Change In The 17th Century

Decent Essays

At the beginning of the 17th century, France consolidated military and political power in the aftermath of the Wars of Religion. The newly throned Henri IV’s vision was to create this centralized power in Paris, and he did so through planning and building monumental projects and rebuilding what had been lost in the destruction. The Louvre, the Place Royal (now the Place des Vosges), and the Place Dauphine were all a part of this growth he commissioned. Much of the infrastructure planning was focused on strengthening the heart of the city, which was centralized around an island on the Seine, the Île de la Cité. Through mapping information from primary source images, this study explores and documents the urban changes in the Île de la Cité of …show more content…

This was done primarily through the architectural intervention of creation of new bridges across the Seine without buildings lining either side beginning with the Pont Neuf, which in turn opened up the banks of the Seine to viewing by pedestrians. This had political and religious implications for the new administrative capital being created in Paris. These conclusions were drawn from both a historical analysis and a digital investigation using ArcGIS, the visuals of which can be found …show more content…

The map from the end of the 17th century shows that most of the bridges on the island followed suit after the building of the Pont Neuf and got rid of the buildings lining either side and new bridges were built in the same style as the Pont Neuf. This implies a master planning of the island; the Pont Neuf created a spatial condition of being open to viewing from all viewpoints that proved to be favorable for other bridges. This reinforces the idea that the developments on the Île de la Cité were meant to convey an aesthetic idea that emphasized a new, wholly more beautiful Paris emergent after

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