The Faubourg Saint-Antoine was one of the traditional suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, France. It grew up to the east of the Bastille around the abbey of

Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Abbey was a convent in what is now the 12th arrondissement of Paris. The faubourg Saint-Antoine developed around it. It later became the hôpital Saint-Antoine. History Middle Ages Renaissance and Enlightenment Conve ...

, and ran along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.

Location

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine extended from the Porte Saint-Antoine towards the abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, then to the

Château de Vincennes The Château de Vincennes () is a former fortress and royal residence next to the town of Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris, alongside the Bois de Vincennes. It was largely built between 1361 and 1369, and was a preferred residence, afte ...

. Roads led to the villages of Charenton, Charonne, Reuilly and Montreuil, which provided large amounts of wine, fruit and vegetables to the city. Today the former faubourg is divided by the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine between the

11th arrondissement of Paris The 11th arrondissement of Paris (''XIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''onzième''. The arrondissement, called Popincourt, is situated on ...

, which extends to the north of the road, and 12th arrondissement, which extends to the south.

History

Early years

The suburb was the location of the Battle of the Faubourg St Antoine on 2 July 1652. In the 17th century, according to Piganiol de La Force, "The Faubourg Saint-Antoine increased prodigiously from the large number of houses that were built there, both because of the good air and because of the king's letters patent of 1657, which exempted from the qualification of mastership all artisans and tradespeople who lived there." Firewood and construction timber from higher up the

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/ Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributa ...

was unloaded at the nearby Quai de la Rapée on the Île Louviers and stored in the ''faubourg'', leading to development of woodworking crafts. Skilled Flemish and German artisans, often Protestant, moved to the faubourg and worked as carvers, gilders, polishers, turners and cabinetmakers.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the country ...

established the royal mirror factory on the rue de Reuilly. The factory of Jean-Baptiste Réveillon on the rue de Montreuil on part of the site of the former

Folie Titon __NOTOC__ Folie or Folies may refer to: Places * Condé-Folie, commune in the Picardie region of France * Fains-la-Folie, commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in north-central France * Folies, commune in the Somme département in the Picardie r ...

became the royal wallpaper factory under

Louis XVI of France Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

. In April 1789 the contractor running the Réveillon factory sparked a riot by threatening to cut wages. The factory was badly damaged, troops were brought in and several dozen people were killed.

French Revolution

During the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

(1789–99) the ''faubourg'' was given the name "Faubourg-de-Gloire". The faubourg gained a reputation for turbulence during the revolution, starting with the

storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At ...

on 14 July 1789. The people of the Quinze-Vingts and Montreuil sections took part in the

insurrection of 10 August 1792 The Insurrection of 10 August 1792 was a defining event of the French Revolution, when armed revolutionaries in Paris, increasingly in conflict with the French monarchy, stormed the Tuileries Palace. The conflict led France to abolish the mona ...

, and that of 2 June 1793 that caused to

Girondins The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...

to fall from power. The revolt of 1 Prairial Year III began in the faubourg, and was savagely repressed.

19th century

In 1808 there were 750 workers, mostly children, in the rue de Charonne spinning mills of François Richard-Lenoir (1765–1839) and Joseph Lenoir-Dufresne (1768–1806), housed in a former convent. The machines were horse-powered. In the uprising of June 1848 the Faubourg Saint-Antoine was the last to capitulate, after being heavily shelled by artillery from the Bastille area and then attacked by troops from the Popincourt quarter, with many casualties, in the morning of June 26, 1848. The Faubourg Saint-Antoine, controlled by the Reuilly barracks, was densely populated with people of the working and "dangerous" classes. Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann wanted to ensure that an insurrection could easily be suppressed. He proposed to

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

to lower the level of the Canal Saint-Martin and cover it so it could be crossed by the Boulevard de la Reine-Hortense (now the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir). He said, "I have rarely seen my august sovereign enthusiastic. This time he was so without reserve, so great an importance did he place ... on the work by means of which I proposed to remove the permanent obstacle ... to the line of control from which one could, in case of need, take the Faubourg Saint-Antoine from the rear." Haussmann split the faubourg between the 11th and 12th arrondissements and replaced the street names with numbers, but the inhabitants continued to use the old names. The former faubourg retained its revolutionary character after it had been formally dissolved. According to

Daniel Halévy Daniel Halévy (12 December 1872 – 4 February 1962) was a French historian. Life The son of Ludovic Halévy, Daniel was born in and died in Paris. His family was of Jewish descent, but his parents were Protestant and he was brought up as a Pr ...

, File:L'abbaye Saint Antoine des Champs.jpg, Abbey of

File:Plan de Paris vers 1550 porte St-Antoine.jpg, Porte St-Antoine File:Episode of the Fronde at the Faubourg Saint-Antoine by the Walls of the Bastille.png, Battle of the Faubourg St Antoine by the Walls of the Bastille in 1652 File:Montgolfiere 1783.jpg, Tethered balloon rises from the papeterie Réveillon (19 October 1783)

Notes

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Faubourg Saint-Antoine 11th arrondissement of Paris 12th arrondissement of Paris Districts of Paris