Paris, Banks of the Seine

Sunday, 6 August 2023 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Paris / Île-de-France, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time:  6 minutes

Pont Michel © flickr.com - Joe deSousa/cc-by-2.0

Pont Michel © flickr.com – Joe deSousa/cc-by-2.0

The term Paris, Banks of the Seine refers to a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was entered in the World Heritage List in 1991 under the following names French: Paris, rives de la Seine, or English: Paris, Banks of the Seine and of course simply the water boundaries of the river. Unesco means the particularly historic section of the Seine within Paris between the Pont de Sully and the Pont d’Iéna. In addition to the Seine islands Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis and the fortified banks of the Seine, the Quais de Paris, adjacent building ensembles, squares, parks and visual axes are also part of the world heritage.

Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle are two of the outstanding monuments of the Seine Islands, both of which are masterpieces of Gothic architecture. On the Île Saint-Louis there are architectural ensembles connected to the Hôtel de Lauzun and Hôtel Lambert, which as Hôtels particulier represent examples of Parisian construction of the 17th and 18th centuries.

On the northern bank of the Seine, the Rive Droite, the Hôtel de Ville de Paris, the Paris City Hall and the Gothic church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois are part of the World Heritage. Its descent is followed by the Palais du Louvre, the Tuileries Gardens to the Place de la Concorde with a connection to the church of La Madeleine, the Petit and Grand Palais, the Palais de Tokyo and the Palais de Chaillot with the Jardins du Trocadéro.

On the left bank of the Seine, the Rive Gauche, this is followed by the Champ de Mars from the Eiffel Tower to the Ecole Militaire. Also located south of the Seine, the esplanade up to the Hôtel des Invalides with the Dôme des Invalides and the forecourt to the south are part of the World Heritage. Up the river is the Palais Bourbon, seat of the National Assembly. It is followed by the Musée d’Orsay, the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Palais de l’Institut, the seat of the Institut de France in the Collège des Quatre-Nations, as well as the Monnaie de Paris, the Paris Mint, at the Quai de Conti, the continuation of which, the Quai des Grands Augustins, leads back to the bridges to the Île de la Cité.

Seine © flickr.com - Mortimer62/cc-by-sa-2.0 Trocadéro © flickr.com - Guilhem Vellut/cc-by-2.0 Conciergerie © Milvus/cc-by-2.5 Eiffel Tower and Champ de Mars © Wladyslaw/cc-by-3.0 Hôtel de Ville © DXR/cc-by-sa-3.0 Île de la Cité © Michal Osmenda/cc-by-2.0 Musée d'Orsay © flickr.com - Shadowgate/cc-by-2.0 Notre-Dame de Paris and Petit-Pont © Myrabella/cc-by-sa-4.0 Pont Alexandre III and Grand Palais © flickr.com - Dennis Jarvis/cc-by-sa-2.0 Pont des Arts and Palais du Louvre © flickr.com - Mario Leonardo Iñiguez/cc-by-2.0 Pont Michel © flickr.com - Joe deSousa/cc-by-2.0 Île Saint-Louis and Pont de Sully © panoramio.com - Edgar El/cc-by-3.0
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Pont des Arts and Palais du Louvre © flickr.com - Mario Leonardo Iñiguez/cc-by-2.0
The area includes the exhibition grounds of the universal exhibitions of 1867, 1878, 1889, 1900 and 1937 and is the location of important collections and museums, such as the collections of the Louvre, the Musée de l’Orangerie in the Jardins de Tuileries, the Musée de l’Armée in Hôtel des Invalides and three museums in the Palais de Chaillot: the Musée de l’Homme, the Musée national de la Marine, and the Musée des Monuments Français, until 2005 also the Musée du Cinéma. 23 of the Seine bridges in Paris are part of the World Heritage. To the south of the École Militaire, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris borders the World Heritage site.

The ensemble is to be seen as a geographic and historical unit. Even in prehistoric times, the Seine was instrumental in the defense and economic development of the villages of the Celtic tribe of the Parisians (Latin: Parisii). The city center, which developed in the 16th and especially in the 17th and 20th centuries, illustrates the relationship between the river and the population. The oldest parts in the east of the World Heritage Site are characterized by the dense development of the Île Saint-Louis and the Marais district. To the west of the Palais du Louvre, the wide squares and boulevards of Haussmann‘s urban planning characterize the cityscape. These include the visual axes at right angles to the Seine: first from the Palais Bourbon via the Place de la Concorde to the parish church of La Madeleine, then the axis from the Hôtel des Invalides via the Esplanade to the Grand and Petit Palais and the axis from the École Militaire via the Field of Mars with the Eiffel Tower to the Palais de Chaillot with the Trocadero Gardens. The axis that runs parallel to the Seine runs from Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois to the Louvre to the Place de la Concorde, and from there beyond the World Heritage area to the Arc de Triomphe and the Grande Arche of La Défense. Paris as a model influenced urban planning around the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

At the time of inscription in 1991, the UNESCO Advisory Board expressed concern about how to implement strict control over urban development, not only for the buildings in the areas immediately adjacent to the World Heritage Site, but also for the profile and height of the skyline visible in the background , so that the cultural heritage site itself and its visual axes would not be impaired in the future either.

Read more on Wikipedia Rive Droite, Wikipedia Rive Gauche, Wikipedia Bouquinistes de Paris and Wikipedia Seine (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




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