Architecture of Paris

Below is a brief introduction to some of the architectural highlights of Paris, France. Founded on the island where a natural north-south highway crosses the Seine River, some 233 miles from the river mouth on the English Channel, Paris, the largest city proper of continental Europe and the capital of France, is over 2,000 years old. Paris is a treasure trove of architectural styles - from Roman arenas and bathhouses to postmodernist cubes and glass pyramids which not only look great but serve a function.

Romanesque

The primary characteristics of Romanesque architecture (or Norman architecture, as northern Romanesque is often known) were Roman in origin. Large internal spaces were spanned by barrel vaults on thick, squat columns and piers, windows and doors had round-headed arches, and most of the major churches were laid out on the basilican plan, modified by the addition of the buttress, transept, and tower. The buildings are solid, heavy, and, because of the comparatively small windows, dimly lighted. No churches in Paris are entirely Romanesque in style, but a few have important representative elements. The Église Saint Germain des Prés and the choir and apse of the Église Saint Nicholas des Champs are examples of Romanesque architecture.

Gothic

From the mid-12th century to the 16th century northern European architecture was characterized by the use of flying buttresses, pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and traceried windows. The thin walls, slender columns, and the very large areas of glass in Gothic buildings gave an impression of lightness that contrasted markedly with the Romanesque. Gothic architecture originated at the royal abbey church of St. Denis, built by Abbot Suger between 1137 and 1144. It was refined in the great churches of northern and central France, such as Amiens Cathedral (1220-70), notable for its great height and the slenderness of its columns, and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris (1247-48), in which exceptionally large wall areas were filled with glass and tracery. Indeed, Gothic architecture was most fully developed in France and England, where the style spread in the late 12th century.If you look closely at certain Gothic buildings, you'll notice that they're slightly asymmetrical. These elements were introduced to avoid monotony, in accordance with standard Gothic practice.

Neoclassicism

Neoclassical architecture, which emerged in about 1740 and remained popular in Paris until well into the 19th century, had its roots in the renewed interest in classical forms. Although it was in part a reaction against baroque and rococo, with their emphasis on decoration and illusion, neoclassicism was more profoundly a search for order, reason and serenity through the adoption of the forms and conventions of Graeco-Roman antiquity: columns, simple geometric forms and traditional ornamentation.

Among the earliest examples in Paris of this reaction against baroque and rococo is the new Italianate façade for Église Saint Sulpice designed in 1733 by Giovanni Servandoni, which took inspiration from Chistopher Wren's Cathedral of Saint Paul in London, and the Petit Trianon at Versailles (1761-64), designed by Jacques-Ange Gabriel for Louis XV. The domed building housing the Institut de France is a masterpiece of early French neoclassical architecture, but France's greatest neoclassical architect of the 18th century was Jacques-Germain Soufflot, who designed the Panthéon.

Renaissance

The Renaissance had its first impact on France at the end of the 15th century, when Charles VIII began a series of invasions of Italy. Loire Valley, known as "the Garden of France", was the favorite residence of Kings of France during the Renaissance period. They made this peaceful countryside the setting for their dreams. Thus was born the Renaissance in France. The kings surrounded themselves with the greatest artists and architects of this era. This is the "country of thousand castles" not only Royal Castles and Renaissance Palaces, National Museum and Large magnificent Châteaux, but also : Manors, Middle Age‘s Castles and Fortresses, small "Fairy tales" Manors ,mansions, Private Castles, Châteaux Hotels, "Self Catering" Castles , luxurious old houses, medieval cities, towers, bastions, fortified farms and churches, abbeys and cathedrals. It is worth driving at random in Loire Valley, Touraine, Sologne, Poitou, Berry and discover castles and more castles.

Baroque and Rococo

In France baroque and rococo were tempered by Neoclassicism, with a resultant elegance and refinement in both architecture and decoration, exemplified by the 18th-century sections of the palace of Versailles. The spread of neoclassical architecture during the 17th and 18th centuries was due in no small measure to the illustrated books that brought it to the attention of educated patrons. During the baroque period painting, sculpture and classical architecture were integrated to create structures and interiors of great subtlety, refinement and elegance. Rococo, a derivation of late baroque uses loose pebbles which, together with shells, were used to decorate inside walls and other surfaces in the 16th century. In France, rococo was confined almost exclusively to the interiors of private residences and had a minimal impact on churches, châteaux and facades.

Art Nouveau

France was at the forefront of the creation of a new 20th-century aesthetic. At the turn of the century, the experiments of Art Nouveau led to the creation of graceful decorative motifs based on natural forms. The Swiss-French architect Charles Edouard Jeanneret, called Le Corbusier, pioneered a philosophy of functionalism in architecture that can be summarized by this famous dictum: "Buildings are machines to live in." The theory and practices of Le Corbusier, reinforced by those of the Bauhaus, in Germany, became the fundamental principles of the International Style, typified by Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929-31; Poissy-sur-Seine). Major achievements of French art since World War II include the paintings of Jean Dubuffet, and the Hungarian-born Victor Vasarely, the brilliantly colored paper cutouts of Matisse, and Le Corbusier's Pilgrim Church of Notre Dame at Ronchamp (1950-55).

Modern Architecture

Today, with almost as many trends and styles as there are architects, French architecture is booming. They are architects who will be building the environment and cities of tomorrow, in a future that will be primarily urban. Breaking away from the modern mistakes of mass urbanisation and heirs to a vast classical architectural tradition, the French are perhaps well placed to tackle the challenges facing the city and to invent a habitable, livable world, in short, a human one.

Since the early 1980s, Paris has seen the construction of such projects as I M Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre, an architectural cause célèbre in the late 1980s; the city's second opera house, Opéra Bastille; the Grande Arche at La Défense; the huge science museum and park at La Villette; Parc André Citroën in the western corner of the 15e arrondissement; the Finance Ministry offices in Bercy; and the controversial Bibliothèque Nationale de France Francois Mitterrand. One of the most beautiful new buildings in Paris is Jean Nouvel's Institut du Monde Arabe, a highly praised structure (opened in 1987) that successfully mixes modern and traditional Arab and western elements.

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