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85-607: In the 16th century, an artillery attack on Pavia destroyed a wing and two towers of the castle. The frescos that entirely decorated the castle rooms are today almost completely lost. The castle had been the seat of the Visconti Library until its transfer to Paris in 1499. Today, it hosts the Pavia Civic Museums . In 1359 the Visconti of Milan conquered Pavia. The city became part of the western portion of

170-770: A Proto-Celtic form reconstructed as * kwar-is-io -. Alternatively, Pierre-Yves Lambert proposed to translate Parisii as the 'spear people', by connecting the first element to the Old Irish carr ('spear'), derived from an earlier * kwar-sā . In any case, the city's name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology . Residents of the city are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens ( [paʁizjɛ̃] ). They are also pejoratively called Parigots ( [paʁiɡo] ). The Parisii ,

255-524: A couple of occasions. The north-eastern side hosted the seigneurial apartments, the richest in decoration. The Sala grande dele caze (Great Hunting Hall) occupied three square modules on the first floor and was the most prominent room in the castle. Faced to the Visconti Park, it was entirely frescoed with hunting scenes and used by the Lord's family as their dining room. A great impact to the visitors had

340-530: A fair amount of sunshine. Each year there are a few days when the temperature rises above 32 °C (90 °F). Longer periods of more intense heat sometimes occur, such as the heat wave of 2003 when temperatures exceeded 30 °C (86 °F) for weeks, reached 40 °C (104 °F) on some days, and rarely cooled down at night. Spring and autumn have, on average, mild days and cool nights, but are changing and unstable. Surprisingly warm or cool weather occurs frequently in both seasons. In winter, sunshine

425-720: A huge and emotional crowd down the Champs Élysées towards Notre Dame de Paris and made a rousing speech from the Hôtel de Ville . In the 1950s and the 1960s, Paris became one front of the Algerian War for independence; in August 1961, the pro-independence FLN targeted and killed 11 Paris policemen, leading to the imposition of a curfew on Muslims of Algeria (who, at that time, were French citizens). On 17 October 1961, an unauthorised but peaceful protest demonstration of Algerians against

510-536: A later time, however in the last quarter of the Three hundred, and are the work of a Lombard master. Also on the ground floor is the "room of the doves" where on a reddish background the Visconti devince of the Colombina alternates with the motto "à bon droit", adopted by Gian Galeazzo, and that of the mountain with the three pine cones and the motto "mit Zeit ", these frescoes, like those in the" blue room ", date back to

595-463: A rectangular plan and rib vaults, on the portal of the chapel there is a sinopia depicting the Pietà, by Michelino da Besozzo , while inside there are frescoes, such as Geometry or The Blessing Christ, by Andrea da Bologna . Also in the chapel, the two Saints Stephen and Leonard, painted within the squares, facing each other, on the piers of the arch that divides the room into two bays, were executed at

680-416: A series of eleven square rooms, elevated on two floors. Each room received light through a single mullioned window overlooking the moat. Four square towers, 43-meter high, were erected at the corners of the castle. Mullioned windows were opened on the four tower's floor. The four sides faced the courtyard internally with a portico on the ground floor and a loggiato , open through four-light windows , on

765-784: A sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones , inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the area's major north–south trade routes crossed the Seine on the Île de la Cité , which gradually became an important trading centre. The Parisii traded with many river towns (some as far away as the Iberian Peninsula) and minted their own coins. The Romans conquered the Paris Basin in 52 BC and began their settlement on Paris's Left Bank . The Roman town

850-527: Is Montmartre at 130 m (427 ft). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes , Paris covers an oval measuring about 87 km (34 sq mi) in area, enclosed by the 35 km (22 mi) ring road, the Boulevard Périphérique . Paris' last major annexation of outlying territories in 1860 gave it its modern form, and created the 20 clockwise-spiralling arrondissements (municipal boroughs). From

935-771: Is 450 km (280 mi) southeast of London, 287 km (178 mi) south of Calais , 305 km (190 mi) southwest of Brussels , 774 km (481 mi) north of Marseille , 385 km (239 mi) northeast of Nantes , and 135 km (84 mi) southeast of Rouen . Paris has an oceanic climate within the Köppen climate classification , typical of western Europe. This climate type features cool winters, with frequent rain and overcast skies, and mild to warm summers. Very hot and very cold temperatures and weather extremes are rare in this type of climate. Summer days are usually mild and pleasant, with average temperatures between 15 and 25 °C (59 and 77 °F), and

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1020-746: Is derived from its early inhabitants, the Parisii , a Gallic tribe from the Iron Age and the Roman period . The meaning of the Gaulish ethnonym remains debated. According to Xavier Delamarre , it may derive from the Celtic root pario- ('cauldron'). Alfred Holder interpreted the name as 'the makers' or 'the commanders', by comparing it to the Welsh peryff ('lord, commander'), both possibly descending from

1105-440: Is scarce. Days are cool, and nights are cold but generally above freezing, with low temperatures around 3 °C (37 °F). Light night frosts are quite common, but the temperature seldom dips below −5 °C (23 °F). Paris sometimes sees light snow or flurries with or without accumulation. Paris has an average annual precipitation of 641 mm (25.2 in), and experiences light rainfall distributed evenly throughout

1190-463: Is the fourth-largest city in the European Union and the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance , diplomacy , commerce , culture , fashion , and gastronomy . Because of its leading role in the arts and sciences and its early adaptation of extensive street lighting, it became known as

1275-630: Is the second-busiest metro system in Europe after the Moscow Metro . Gare du Nord is the 24th-busiest railway station in the world and the busiest outside Japan , with 262   million passengers in 2015. Paris has one of the most sustainable transportation systems and is one of only two cities in the world that received the Sustainable Transport Award twice. Paris is known for its museums and architectural landmarks:

1360-619: The Champs-Élysées extended the city west to Étoile , while the working-class neighbourhood of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine on the eastern side of the city grew increasingly crowded with poor migrant workers from other regions of France. Paris was the centre of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity, known as the Age of Enlightenment . Diderot and D'Alembert published their Encyclopédie in 1751, before

1445-825: The College of Sorbonne , and a palace for himself, the Palais-Cardinal . After Richelieu's death in 1642, it was renamed the Palais-Royal . Due to the Parisian uprisings during the Fronde civil war, Louis XIV moved his court to a new palace, Versailles , in 1682. Although no longer the capital of France, arts and sciences in the city flourished with the Comédie-Française , the Academy of Painting, and

1530-603: The Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, in 2022, Paris was the city with the ninth-highest cost of living in the world. Paris is a major railway, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Charles de Gaulle Airport , the third-busiest airport in Europe , and Orly Airport . Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro , serves 5.23   million passengers daily. It

1615-663: The European Space Agency , the European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority . The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris. The 81,000-seat Stade de France , built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup , is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis . Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on

1700-738: The French Academy of Sciences . To demonstrate that the city was safe from attack, the king had the city walls demolished and replaced with tree-lined boulevards that would become the Grands Boulevards . Other marks of his reign were the Collège des Quatre-Nations , the Place Vendôme , the Place des Victoires , and Les Invalides . Paris grew in population from about 400,000 in 1640 to 650,000 in 1780. A new boulevard named

1785-665: The Grand Paris project, to integrate Paris more closely with the towns in the region around it. After many modifications, the new area, named the Metropolis of Grand Paris , with a population of 6.7 million, was created on 1 January 2016. In 2011, the City of Paris and the national government approved the plans for the Grand Paris Express , totalling 205 km (127 mi) of automated metro lines to connect Paris,

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1870-515: The Louvre received 8.9   million visitors in 2023, on track for keeping its position as the most-visited art museum in the world. The Musée d'Orsay , Musée Marmottan Monet and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art. The Pompidou Centre , Musée National d'Art Moderne , Musée Rodin and Musée Picasso are noted for their collections of modern and contemporary art . The historical district along

1955-493: The Montgolfier Brothers launched the first manned flight in a hot air balloon on 21 November 1783. Paris was the financial capital of continental Europe, as well the primary European centre for book publishing, fashion and the manufacture of fine furniture and luxury goods. On 22 October 1797, Paris was also the site of the first parachute jump in history, by Garnerin . In the summer of 1789, Paris became

2040-532: The Paris Commune held power for two months, before being harshly suppressed by the French army during the " Bloody Week " at the end of May 1871. In the late 19th century, Paris hosted two major international expositions: the 1889 Universal Exposition , which featured the new Eiffel Tower, was held to mark the centennial of the French Revolution; and the 1900 Universal Exposition gave Paris

2125-599: The Pont Alexandre III , the Grand Palais , the Petit Palais and the first Paris Métro line. Paris became the laboratory of Naturalism ( Émile Zola ) and Symbolism ( Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine ), and of Impressionism in art ( Courbet , Manet , Monet , Renoir ). By 1901, the population of Paris had grown to about 2,715,000. At the beginning of the century, artists from around

2210-634: The Pont des Arts . During the Restoration , the bridges and squares of Paris were returned to their pre-Revolution names; the July Revolution in 1830 (commemorated by the July Column on the Place de la Bastille ) brought to power a constitutional monarch, Louis Philippe I . The first railway line to Paris opened in 1837, beginning a new period of massive migration from the provinces to

2295-794: The Seine in the city centre has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. Paris is home to several United Nations organizations including UNESCO, as well as other international organizations such as the OECD , the OECD Development Centre , the International Bureau of Weights and Measures , the International Energy Agency , the International Federation for Human Rights , along with European bodies such as

2380-678: The Sforza house , he invaded the Duchy of Milan and occupied Pavia. During the French rule, about half of the books of the Visconti Library were transferred to Paris. In 1512, after the Battle of Ravenna , the French retired from Pavia, and the Sforza returned to power. Francis I , the successor of Louis XII and Valentina Visconti's descendant, defeated the Sforza in the Battle of Marignano in 1515 and conquered Milan and Pavia again. The French encountered

2465-614: The Siege of Paris (885–886) , for which the then Count of Paris ( comte de Paris ), Odo of France , was elected king of West Francia . From the Capetian dynasty that began with the 987 election of Hugh Capet , Count of Paris and Duke of the Franks ( duc des Francs ), as king of a unified West Francia, Paris gradually became the largest and most prosperous city in France. By the end of

2550-755: The Spanish Kingdom and then, after the War of the Spanish Succession , under the Austrian rule. The Spanish regime built the new city walls along a border that included the destroyed north-eastern side of the castle. A bastion of the walls occupied that area. Since then, the Spanish Walls separated the Visconti Park from the castle. The Napoleonic forces occupied Pavia in 1796 during the first Italian campaign . The French army transformed

2635-480: The Île Saint-Louis and the larger Île de la Cité , which form the oldest part of Paris. The river's mouth on the English Channel ( La Manche ) is about 233 mi (375 km) downstream from Paris. Paris is spread widely on both banks of the river. Overall, Paris is relatively flat, and the lowest point is 35 m (115 ft) above sea level . Paris has several prominent hills, the highest of which

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2720-521: The 12th century, Paris had become the political, economic, religious, and cultural capital of France. The Palais de la Cité , the royal residence, was located at the western end of the Île de la Cité. In 1163, during the reign of Louis VII , Maurice de Sully , bishop of Paris, undertook the construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral at its eastern extremity. After the marshland between the river Seine and its slower 'dead arm' to its north

2805-503: The 1860 area of 78 km (30 sq mi), the city limits were expanded marginally to 86.9 km (33.6 sq mi) in the 1920s. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes forest parks were annexed to the city, bringing its area to about 105 km (41 sq mi). The metropolitan area is 2,300 km (890 sq mi). Measured from the 'point zero' in front of its Notre-Dame cathedral , Paris by road

2890-584: The Camera delli spechi (Room of the Mirrors), a room on the ground floor with the vault and the walls covered with small, decorated glasses that reflected the light of the sun. In 1385, Gian Galeazzo Visconti ousted his uncle Bernabò and became the sole ruler of Milan and the Visconti territories. He continued altogether to reside in Pavia. He directed frequent military campaigns against the nearby local powers from

2975-522: The City of Light in the 19th century. The City of Paris is the centre of the Île-de-France region , or Paris Region, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 inhabitants in January 2023, or about 19% of the population of France. The Paris Region had a nominal GDP of €765 billion (US$ 1.064 trillion when adjusted for PPP ) in 2021, the highest in the European Union. According to

3060-731: The Frank , the first king of the Merovingian dynasty , made the city his capital from 508. As the Frankish domination of Gaul began, there was a gradual immigration by the Franks to Paris and the Parisian Francien dialects were born. Fortification of the Île de la Cité failed to avert sacking by Vikings in 845 , but Paris's strategic importance—with its bridges preventing ships from passing—was established by successful defence in

3145-616: The French police and gendarmes arrested 12,884 Jews, including 4,115 children, and confined them during five days at the Vel d'Hiv ( Vélodrome d'Hiver ), from which they were transported by train to the extermination camp at Auschwitz . None of the children came back. On 25 August 1944, the city was liberated by the French 2nd Armoured Division and the 4th Infantry Division of the United States Army . General Charles de Gaulle led

3230-421: The Great Hunting Hall. Before the Galeazzo Maria Sforza 's marriage to Bona of Savoy in 1468, Bembo was again called in Pavia to renew the existing frescoes. On 17 January 1491, in the ducal chapel of the castle, Ludovico il Moro married Beatrice d'Este , daughter of Ercole I d'Este , Duke of Ferrara. In the same year Ludovico il Moro had Gian Galeazzo Sforza and his wife Isabella of Aragon transferred to

3315-414: The League of Cognac . Odet de Foix , Viscount of Lautrec, sieged the castle in 1527. The French artillery destroyed the north-eastern side with the two adjacent towers. The most prominent part of the castle, the richly decorated seigneurial apartments, went therefore lost. The war ended again with the defeat of France. Pavia and the Duchy of Milan definitively returned to the Holy Roman Empire. The members of

3400-444: The Pinacoteca Malaspina, Museo Archeologico and Sala Longobarda, Sezioni Medioevale e Rinascimentale, Quadreria dell’800 (Collezione Morone), Museo del Risorgimento, Museo Robecchi Bricchetti, and the Crypt of Sant’Eusebio . In the western tower, where once stood the Visconti Library, a virtual reconstruction allows the consultation of the books once kept there. The rooms with the survived frescos and decorations can be visited as part of

3485-411: The Place Royale, now Place des Vosges . In spite of Henry IV's efforts to improve city circulation, the narrowness of Paris's streets was a contributing factor in his assassination near Les Halles marketplace in 1610. During the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu , chief minister of Louis XIII , was determined to make Paris the most beautiful city in Europe. He built five new bridges, a new chapel for

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3570-429: The Revolution, but after 1799 it surged with 160,000 new residents, reaching 660,000 by 1815. Napoleon replaced the elected government of Paris with a prefect that reported directly to him. He began erecting monuments to military glory, including the Arc de Triomphe , and improved the neglected infrastructure of the city with new fountains, the Canal de l'Ourcq , Père Lachaise Cemetery and the city's first metal bridge,

3655-403: The Sforza house were reinstated as dukes of Milan and rulers of Pavia. In 1535, after the death without heirs of Francesco II , the last Sforza Duke, Charles V assumed the direct rule of Pavia. After him, Pavia remained under the power of his successors, members of the Habsburg house . Pavia and its castle followed the destiny of the other Habsburg possessions in Lombardy, initially as part of

3740-464: The Spanish Walls, it passed underneath through two of their bastions. The military use ceased in 1920. Restorations and transformations adapted the castle to public service and ended in the '40s. The restoration preserved the castle's existing forms. Two mullioned windows of the south-eastern wing were modified and restored to their original 14-century four-light version. The castle hosts the Civic Museums of Pavia (Musei civici di Pavia). They include

3825-564: The Tuileries Palace. In 1793, as the revolution turned increasingly radical, the king, queen and mayor were beheaded by guillotine in the Reign of Terror , along with more than 16,000 others throughout France. The property of the aristocracy and the church was nationalised , and the city's churches were closed, sold or demolished. A succession of revolutionary factions ruled Paris until 9 November 1799 ( coup d'état du 18 brumaire ), when Napoleon Bonaparte seized power as First Consul. The population of Paris had dropped by 100,000 during

3910-419: The Visconti territories, ruled by Galeazzo II Visconti. His idea to build a castle came from Pavia's ancient role as the capital of the Lombard Kingdom and the Visconti's ambition to extend their dominion to its territory. He chose the site of the castle in the most elevated part of Pavia, in the direction of Milan. There, he created a citadel , isolated by a moat from the rest of the city. The castle occupied

3995-405: The capital of France, was the most populous city of Europe. By comparison, London in 1300 had 80,000 inhabitants. By the early fourteenth century, so much filth had collected inside urban Europe that French and Italian cities were naming streets after human waste. In medieval Paris, several street names were inspired by merde , the French word for "shit". During the Hundred Years' War , Paris

4080-421: The capital of the Visconti dominions. The Visconti continued, nevertheless, to decorate the castle. Pisanello worked in Milan in 1440, and Filippo Maria Visconti (the son and successor of Gian Galeazzo) asked him to paint the great fresco later attested in one of the castle's rooms. Francesco Sforza , Duke of Milan since 1450, arranged to preserve the decorations. In 1457 he called Bonifacio Bembo to restore

4165-399: The castle as a barrack. After the Italian unification in 1859–1860, the castle passed to the Italian army . It housed a body of 1200 men and 600 horses. The prolonged military use of the castle was the primary cause of the deterioration of the frescoes that decorated its rooms. In the second half of the 19th century, the Pavia-Cremona railway was built. Following the line along the ditch of

4250-436: The castle into a barrack . To protect it from the artillery attacks, they covered the roof with earth, causing infiltrations and humidity that damaged the building. In the Napoleonic era the foundry was reopened and enlarged and the castle became the artillery arsenal of the Kingdom of Italy , a function it maintained until 1814, when the foundry was definitively closed. The Austrians, after their return in 1815, continued to use

4335-460: The castle, making Pavia the capital of a continuously increasing territory. The western tower hosted the Visconti Library, a vast collection of books gathered by Galeazzo II and expanded by his son. After the Visconti's conquest of Padua , the library received several books that belonged to Petrarch. Geoffrey Chaucer is supposed to have visited the Visconti Library in 1378. After the death of Gian Galeazzo in 1402, Pavia lost importance to Milan as

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4420-570: The castle, who lived here until 1495, the year of the suspected death of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, and where they created a brilliant court. Since the end of the 15th century, the Duchy of Milan was at the center of the conflict between France and the Holy Roman Empire . The ensuing frequent wars caused damages to the Pavia castle and the Visconti Park. In 1498, Louis of Orleans , a grandson of Valentina Visconti (daughter of Gian Galeazzo and Isabel of Valois ), became King of France as Louis XII. The following year, claiming hereditary rights against

4505-454: The centre stage of the French Revolution . On 14 July, a mob seized the arsenal at the Invalides , acquiring thousands of guns, with which it stormed the Bastille , a principal symbol of royal authority. The first independent Paris Commune , or city council, met in the Hôtel de Ville and elected a Mayor , the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly , on 15 July. Louis XVI and the royal family were brought to Paris and incarcerated in

4590-435: The city. In 1848, Louis-Philippe was overthrown by a popular uprising in the streets of Paris. His successor, Napoleon III , alongside the newly appointed prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann , launched a huge public works project to build wide new boulevards, a new opera house, a central market, new aqueducts, sewers and parks, including the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes . In 1860, Napoleon III annexed

4675-402: The curfew led to violent confrontations between the police and demonstrators, in which at least 40 people were killed. The anti-independence Organisation armée secrète (OAS) carried out a series of bombings in Paris throughout 1961 and 1962. In May 1968, protesting students occupied the Sorbonne and put up barricades in the Latin Quarter . Thousands of Parisian blue-collar workers joined

4760-402: The eastern portion of the citadel. The castle was conceived as a residential palace to host the sovereign court, the chancellery, and the ruler's family. The military functions were concentrated in the Citadel outside the castle. The construction began in 1360 and was completed in about five years. The castle extended over a square surface with 142-meter-long sides. Internally, the four sides had

4845-443: The first Bishop of Paris: according to legend, when he refused to renounce his faith before the Roman occupiers, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as Mons Martyrum (Latin "Hill of Martyrs"), later " Montmartre ", from where he walked headless to the north of the city; the place where he fell and was buried became an important religious shrine, the Basilica of Saint-Denis , and many French kings are buried there. Clovis

4930-407: The first floor. Crenelated roofs covered the wings and the towers. The architect of the castle is unknown. Some details, such as the internal square module and the four-light windows, have tentatively identified the Venetian architect Bernardo da Venezia , who was nevertheless active in Pavia only after 1389. After completing the castle, under Gian Galeazzo's rule, the loggiato of the first floor

5015-414: The first socialist mayor. He was re-elected in March 2008. In 2007, in an effort to reduce car traffic, he introduced the Vélib' , a system which rents bicycles. Bertrand Delanoë also transformed a section of the highway along the Left Bank of the Seine into an urban promenade and park, the Promenade des Berges de la Seine , which he inaugurated in June 2013. In 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy launched

5100-453: The front line at the First Battle of the Marne . The city was also bombed by Zeppelins and shelled by German long-range guns . In the years after the war, known as Les Années Folles , Paris continued to be a mecca for writers, musicians and artists from around the world, including Ernest Hemingway , Igor Stravinsky , James Joyce , Josephine Baker , Eva Kotchever , Henry Miller , Anaïs Nin , Sidney Bechet and Salvador Dalí . In

5185-413: The innermost three departments around Paris, airports and high-speed rail (TGV) stations, at an estimated cost of €35 billion. The system is scheduled to be completed by 2030. In January 2015, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed attacks across the Paris region. 1.5 million people marched in Paris in a show of solidarity against terrorism and in support of freedom of speech. In November of

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5270-424: The internal courtyard, on the side where a wing and two towers are missing for the 1527 artillery attack, the remains of the Spanish Walls are visible. Paris Paris ( French pronunciation: [paʁi] ) is the capital and largest city of France . With an estimated population of 2,102,650 residents in January 2023 in an area of more than 105 km (41 sq mi), Paris

5355-542: The interventions of 1469. On the first floor (the noble floor, where the ducal apartments were located, the library, in the tower at the southwest corner, and the chancellery, south-east tower, of which the inscription on the door is still preserved) there is the "room of the bridesmaids" where there are two frescoes, depicting life-size ladies in front of a hedge of roses dating back to the pictorial interventions promoted by Gian Galeazzo in 1393 and recently attributed to Gentile da Fabriano, who in those years worked in Pavia. In

5440-512: The late 12th century, Philip Augustus extended the Louvre fortress to defend the city against river invasions from the west, gave the city its first walls between 1190 and 1215, rebuilt its bridges to either side of its central island, and paved its main thoroughfares. In 1190, he transformed Paris's former cathedral school into a student-teacher corporation that would become the University of Paris and would draw students from all of Europe. With 200,000 inhabitants in 1328, Paris, then already

5525-490: The modern city of Paris was first mentioned in the mid-1st century BC by Julius Caesar as Luteciam Parisiorum (' Lutetia of the Parisii ') and is later attested as Parision in the 5th century AD, then as Paris in 1265. During the Roman period, it was commonly known as Lutetia or Lutecia in Latin, and as Leukotekía in Greek, which is interpreted as either stemming from the Celtic root *lukot- ('mouse'), or from * luto- ('marsh, swamp'). The name Paris

5610-466: The museums' tour. In the portico on the ground floor there are traces of the first pictorial decoration with geometric figures, while on the vaults the starry sky was painted, ordered by Galeazzo II for the whole castle in 1366. The geometric painting, however, had to leave room, in the walls, also to figurative scenes. The remains of frescoes, depicting the View of Pavia (south wing, third span) and Knights (west wing, sixth and eighth spans) dating back to

5695-450: The new site of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (1996), the Arche de la Défense (1985–1989) in La Défense , as well as the Louvre Pyramid with its underground courtyard (1983–1989); Jacques Chirac (2006), the Musée du quai Branly . In the early 21st century, the population of Paris began to increase slowly again, as more young people moved into the city. It reached 2.25 million in 2011. In March 2001, Bertrand Delanoë became

5780-407: The opposition of the emperor Charles V , who defended the imperial role as the grantor of the Duke of Milan title. The Battle of Pavia in 1525 ended a new war with the defeat of France and the imprisonment of Francis I. The battle significantly damaged the walls of the Visconti Park, causing the beginning of its decay. After the release of Francis I, the French attacked Pavia again in the War of

5865-405: The preciousness of the techniques and materials used. The decoration is made up of squares with raised and gilded frames, which divide the walls, always in relief and covered with gold foils are the heraldic motifs (lilies of France and Sforza emblems) and stars, on alternately blue and green backgrounds. On the ground floor, immediately to the right of the southern entrance, there is the chapel, with

5950-442: The red clay of Roland Garros . Paris hosted the 1900 , the 1924 , and the 2024 Summer Olympics . The 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups , the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup , the 2007 Rugby World Cup , as well as the 1960 , 1984 and 2016 UEFA European Championships were held in Paris. Every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The ancient oppidum that corresponds to

6035-425: The same year, terrorist attacks , claimed by ISIL, killed 130 people and injured more than 350. On 22 April 2016, the Paris Agreement was signed by 196 nations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in an aim to limit the effects of climate change below 2 °C. Paris is located in northern central France, in a north-bending arc of the river Seine , whose crest includes two islands,

6120-590: The seventh decade of the fourteenth century and recently attributed to Giusto de 'Menabuoi . Some doors open onto the portico still retain the inscription in Gothic characters which identified the entrance to rooms used as offices, including the one intended for the accountancy of the Duchess Caterina Visconti . On the ground floor of the south-west tower is the "blue room", the result of the pictorial interventions of 1469, particularly sumptuous for

6205-647: The students, and the movement grew into a two-week general strike. Supporters of the government won the June elections by a large majority. The May 1968 events in France resulted in the break-up of the University of Paris into 13 independent campuses. In 1975, the National Assembly changed the status of Paris to that of other French cities and, on 25 March 1977, Jacques Chirac became the first elected mayor of Paris since 1793. The Tour Maine-Montparnasse ,

6290-606: The surrounding towns and created eight new arrondissements, expanding Paris to its current limits. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Paris was besieged by the Prussian Army . Following several months of blockade, hunger, and then bombardment by the Prussians, the city was forced to surrender on 28 January 1871. After seizing power in Paris on 28 March, a revolutionary government known as

6375-463: The tallest building in the city at 57 storeys and 210 m (689 ft) high, was built between 1969 and 1973. It was highly controversial, and it remains the only building in the centre of the city over 32 storeys high. The population of Paris dropped from 2,850,000 in 1954 to 2,152,000 in 1990, as middle-class families moved to the suburbs. A suburban railway network, the RER (Réseau Express Régional),

6460-542: The throne Henry IV , after converting to Catholicism to gain entry to the capital, entered the city in 1594 to claim the crown of France. This king made several improvements to the capital during his reign: he completed the construction of Paris's first uncovered, sidewalk-lined bridge, the Pont Neuf , built a Louvre extension connecting it to the Tuileries Palace , and created the first Paris residential square,

6545-495: The world including Pablo Picasso , Modigliani , and Henri Matisse made Paris their home. It was the birthplace of Fauvism , Cubism and abstract art , and authors such as Marcel Proust were exploring new approaches to literature. During the First World War , Paris sometimes found itself on the front line; 600 to 1,000 Paris taxis played a small but highly important symbolic role in transporting 6,000 soldiers to

6630-401: The year. Paris is known for intermittent, abrupt, heavy showers. The highest recorded temperature was 42.6 °C (108.7 °F), on 25 July 2019. The lowest was −23.9 °C (−11.0 °F), on 10 December 1879. For almost all of its long history, except for a few brief periods, Paris was governed directly by representatives of the king, emperor, or president of France. In 1974, Paris

6715-476: The years after the peace conference , the city was also home to growing numbers of students and activists from French colonies and other Asian and African countries, who later became leaders of their countries, such as Ho Chi Minh , Zhou Enlai and Léopold Sédar Senghor . On 14 June 1940, the German army marched into Paris, which had been declared an " open city ". On 16–17 July 1942, following German orders,

6800-788: Was built to complement the Métro; the Périphérique expressway encircling the city, was completed in 1973. Most of the postwar presidents of the Fifth Republic wanted to leave their own monuments in Paris; President Georges Pompidou started the Centre Georges Pompidou (1977), Valéry Giscard d'Estaing began the Musée d'Orsay (1986); President François Mitterrand had the Opéra Bastille built (1985–1989),

6885-525: Was filled in from around the 10th century, Paris's cultural centre began to move to the Right Bank. In 1137, a new city marketplace (today's Les Halles ) replaced the two smaller ones on the Île de la Cité and Place de Grève (Place de l'Hôtel de Ville) . The latter location housed the headquarters of Paris's river trade corporation, an organisation that later became, unofficially (although formally in later years), Paris's first municipal government. In

6970-454: Was granted municipal autonomy by the National Assembly. The first modern elected mayor of Paris was Jacques Chirac , elected March 1977, becoming the city's first mayor since 1871 and only the fourth since 1794. The current mayor is Anne Hidalgo , a socialist , first elected in April 2014 , and re-elected in June 2020 . Bona of Savoy Too Many Requests If you report this error to

7055-471: Was modified to make it more liveable. On the north-western and south-eastern sides, the four-light windows were reduced respectively to single-light and mullioned windows. The Visconti made a great effort to decorate all the castle's rooms with frescoes . Since local painters were not enough, Galeazzo II and his son requested the Gonzaga , rulers of Mantua , to send to Pavia all the painters available there on

7140-618: Was occupied by England-friendly Burgundian forces from 1418, before being occupied outright by the English when Henry V of England entered the French capital in 1420; in spite of a 1429 effort by Joan of Arc to liberate the city, it would remain under English occupation until 1436. In the late 16th-century French Wars of Religion , Paris was a stronghold of the Catholic League , the organisers of 24 August 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in which thousands of French Protestants were killed. The conflicts ended when pretender to

7225-556: Was originally called Lutetia (more fully, Lutetia Parisiorum , "Lutetia of the Parisii", modern French Lutèce ). It became a prosperous city with a forum, baths, temples, theatres, and an amphitheatre . By the end of the Western Roman Empire , the town was known as Parisius , a Latin name that would later become Paris in French. Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD by Saint Denis ,

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