To accompany the reading of Paris Reborn, this annotated map shows the location of the streets, squares, parks and buildings created during the Second Empire transformation of Paris (1848-1870). Click on any item for more information or zoom for a better view. If you click through to the Google Maps page you can also scroll down the left to see the list of places.
View Paris Reborn in a larger map
The street structure shows the few key features of the transformation:
– In yellow, we see the earliest projects, planned before the arrival of Haussmann as Prefect of the Seine. The two most ambitious projects are the arteries crossing Paris parallel to the Seine (rue de Rivoli) and perpendicular to it (boulevard Sebastopol), but there are a number of other smaller streets in the center, one street on the Left Bank (rue des Écoles) and some streets on the periphery of the city of the time.
– In red are the projects approved in 1858 as part of the 180 Million Franc Treaty signed between the City of Paris and the national government. This is the big wave of projects that structured Second Empire Paris, particularly around the place de la République, place de l’Opéra, parc Monceau, pont de l’Alma, and faubourg Saint-Marcel.
– Haussmann continued the restructuring of the city through projects entirely funded by the city in what he called the “third network,” which was not disclosed publicly until the very end of 1866. These projects, in orange, tie together the red projects of the “second network” and create further connections across the city.
– In early 1870, Georges-Eugène Haussmann was forced from office. In the summer of the same year, France declared war against Prussia, leading eventually to the capture of Napoleon III and the collapse of the Second Empire. A number of projects for Paris were left uncompleted, even though many were already planned and approved. These projects, in pink on the map, would be completed in the years to come, together with other new streets planned during the Third Republic years.
All together, it is difficult not to be struck by the number of new streets built in a period of only 22 years and by how comprehensively the urban structure of Paris was changed.