Situated on the Right Bank of the River Seine, it is bordered to the west by the 1st arrondissement; to the north by the 3rd, to the east by the 11th and 12th, and to the south by the Seine and the 5th. The 4th arrondissement contains the Renaissance-era Paris City Hall. It also contains the Renaissance square of Place des Vosges, the overtly modern Pompidou Centre and the lively southern part of the medieval district of Le Marais, which today is known for being the gay district of Paris (while the more quiet northern part of Le Marais is contained inside the 3rd arrondissement). The eastern parts of the Île de la Cité (including Notre-Dame de Paris) as well as the Île Saint-Louis are also included within the 4th arrondissement. The 4th arrondissement is known for its little streets, cafés, and shops but is regarded as expensive and congested. It is desirable for those insisting on old buildings and multi-cultural exposure.
The Île de la Cité has been inhabited since the 1st century BC, when it was occupied by the Parisii tribe of the Gauls. The Right Bank was first settled in the early Middle Ages (exactly: In the 5th century). Since the end of the 19th century, le Marais has been populated by a significant Jewish population, the Rue des Rosiers being at the heart of its community, with a handful of kosher restaurants. Since the 1990s, gay culture has made an impact on the arrondissement, opening a number of bars and cafés in the area by the town hall.
The Hôtel de Ville is the building housing the City of Paris’s administration. Standing on the place de l’Hôtel de Ville (formerly the place de Grève), it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357. It serves multiple functions, housing the local administration, the Mayor of Paris (since 1977), and also serves as a venue for large receptions. It is located near the metro station: Hôtel de Ville. Since the French Revolution, the building has been the scene of a number of historical events, notably the proclamation of the French Third Republic in 1870 and the famous speech by Charles de Gaulle on 25 August 1944 during the Liberation of Paris when he greeted the crowd from a front window. The Hôtel de Ville was for many years the fief of Jacques Chirac, France’s president from 1995 until May 2007, and was the site of a scandal centering on both illegal jobs given to Chirac’s party members and an extravagant entertainment budget.
Centre Georges Pompidou (also known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture. It houses the Bibliothèque publique d’information, a vast public library, the Musée National d’Art Moderne which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who decided its creation, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by then-French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The Centre Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.
The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris, where the Bastille prison stood until the ‘Storming of the Bastille’ and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution; no vestige of it remains. The July Column (Colonne de Juillet) which commemorates the events of the July Revolution (1830) stands at the center of the square. Other notable features include the Bastille Opera, the Bastille subway station and a section of the Canal Saint Martin. Prior to 1984, the former Bastille railway station stood where the opera house now stands. The square is often home to concerts and similar events. The north-eastern area of Bastille is busy at night due to many cafés, bars, night clubs, and concert halls.
