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Georges Eugène Haussmann (1809-1891), who became a Baron when elected senator in 1857, was a civic
planner, well known for his massive renovation of Paris. As the Prefect of the Seine Department, he designed and
led the transformation of Paris under the orders of Napoleon III, between 1853 and 1870.

In the mid-1800's, the center of Paris was dark, overcrowded, and unhealthy. While living in England, Louis-
Napoleon Bonaparte visited London, a city rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666. He was very impressed with the
spacious streets, modern city planning, and hygiene. Throughout the Second Empire, he wished to make
Paris a city as modern and prestigious as London. According to architect Stephane Kirkland, Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte was a visionary and an idealist who wished to rebuild Paris for the new industrial era. He would have
played a central part in the creation of modern Paris, and immense project that he put Baron Haussmann in charge
of.

Descended of a Protestant family from Alsace, Georges Eugène Haussmann had both paternal and maternal
connections to the Revolution and Napoleon. His paternal grandfather had been a member of the legislative and
conventional assemblies during the Revolution, while his maternal grandfather was a general in the time of
Napoleon. Haussmann was born in Paris on March 27th, 1809, in a house that he would later demolish to build the
small place between the Boulevard Haussmann and the Avenue de Friedland. He studied law in Paris.
A product of Napoleonic schools, Haussmann was no idealist and preferred concrete, rational, and feasible projects.
Adolphe Yvon, Baron Haussmann, 1867, Musée Carnavalet – History His Memoirs portray him as a very serious, organized administrator. For example, he inventoried all of the
of Paris. furniture in each residence that he stayed at, and recorded a detailed itinerary of each of his journeys. The Memoirs
also have accounts of the number of new gas lanterns compared to that of the oil lamps they were replacing, and the
number of chestnut trees that were planted along boulevards. Haussmann's innate sense of discipline and his trust in
the administration as the main vector for social change made him the Emperor's perfect partner in this project to
renovate Paris.
Haussmann was not close to the Second Republic, proclaimed in 1848. Nonetheless, he supported the President
Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, and was therefore made Prefect of Bordeaux, and soon after that, of Paris. He
would remain a supporter of Louis-Napoleon and the Bonaparte cause until his death on January 11th,
1891, in Paris.

When he arrived in Paris as Prefect of the Seine, Haussmann met with Napoleon who showed him a map
of Paris with the new streets that he wanted to build. The two men were about to take on the transformation
of an essentially medieval city into a modern capital. This remains the largest urban renovation project in
Western European History. This 19th-century project, led by Baron Haussmann and completed under the Third
Republic, gave Paris its modern-day appearance. Other than the construction of the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré-Cœur, the
skyscrapers at Montparnasse and La Défense, the Front-de-Seine, and the gentrification around the Bastille, Paris
remains the city that Haussmann and Louis-Napoleon had imagined.
According to his Memoirs, Haussmann saw himself as the “devoted instrument”, “the principal worker on this
colossal project.” He and Napoleon III met almost every day to discuss the work. Most of the time, it was up to
Haussmann to accomplish the Emperor's large visions. The Prefect wielded enormous power, which led Adolphe
Thiers to refer to him as the “vice-Emperor”.
Adolphe Yvon, Napoléon III Giving Haussmann the Decree for the
Louis-Napoleon did not want to raise taxes to finance the project. Haussmann found a solution when he decided to
Annexation of Adjacent Towns to Paris on February 16th, 1859,
1865, Musée Carnavalet. unleash capitalism, stimulated and directed by government investment, and to levy duty on all products and
materials that entered Paris. In this way, the city financed its own renovation, which was a very
innovative strategy at the time.
The Emperor and the Prefect wished to transform their city socially, politically, and culturally. Haussmann's
renovation was a central factor for the pacification of Paris. The reconstitution of urban space through the
construction of extensive boulevards and the destruction of small, narrow, easily-barricaded streets protected Paris
against the types of insurrections that it had so often been familiar with in the past, like the Fronde during the 17th
century, or the 1848 Revolution, only 15 years earlier. Other than the Commune in 1871, Paris would never again be
faced with such violent insurrections. In order to control such problems, Haussmann came up with the idea of making
the city of Paris buy the Canal St. Martin, and then building a new boulevard (today the Boulevard Richard Lenoir)
that would cross the canal and connect the Château d'Eau (today place de la République) and the place du Trône
(today place de la Nation). This allowed the city to control “the habitual center of […] demonstrations” and to nullify
the canal as a barrier. Louis-Napoleon agreed with this strategy.
Construction of the avenue de l'Opéra.
Haussmann and the Emperor's work didn't only lead to a strategic pacification of the city. It also created the Paris
that we know today, a capital loved by its inhabitants and admired throughout the World. Parisian life was
transformed by the "vie du Boulevard" (life of the Boulevard) and “l'esprit du boulevard”, which quickly became a
characteristic aspect of Parisian life (see Illustration 6).
The Prefect created a new city plan (Illustration 4), with large avenues bordered by buildings that were more
spacious and luxurious than the previous ones. He placed the big train stations around the city center. Long avenues
were constructed, such as the avenue de l'Opéra and the avenue de la Grande Armée. Space was freed up around
monuments to make them stand out, like the place de l'Opéra and the place de l'Etoile (today place Charles de
Gaulle), where several avenues meet (Illustrations 3 and 5).
The Prefect expressed his passion for the rectilinear, monumentality, and aesthetic, classical urban planning, with
The Transformation of Paris during the Second Empire and at the
Beginning of the Third Republic his uniform buildings, places adorned with statues, and broad, linear avenues leading the eye to an isolated
monument. He was influenced by his years living in Bordeaux, that had been modernized during the 17th century.
Under the Second Empire, the development of western Paris was reinforced by the construction of streets and
parks such as the Bois de Boulogne and the Parc Monceau. Haussmann shifted the center of Paris westward toward
the Opéra and the new boulevards. He transformed the Ile de la Cité and its surroundings to accentuate the
magnificence of the city center's monuments and administrative buildings by isolating them. He created large spaces
around monuments like the Hôtel de Ville, the Louvre, the Palais de Justice, and Notre-Dame. The parvis, the open
area in front of Notre Dame (Illustration 7), was created at this time, spanning over 40 times more space than it had
in the 12th century. According the David P. Jordan, French History scholar, the Ile de la Cité is the best example of
the haussmanisation of Paris (Illustrations 8 and 9).

Haussmann, who was not very attached to the old Paris, wanted to bring safer and more sanitary living conditions
to the city by creating not only large avenues but also parks and gardens, as well as a whole new sewage system to
get rid of open sewers, and a water supply network. The Prefect and the Emperor also wanted to develop direct and
Camille Pissarro, Avenue de l'Opéra, 1898, Reims Museum of Fine
practical transportation throughout the city. Although these transformations destroyed large parts of Medieval Paris,
Arts.
the city now had a better urban coherence, and larger, modern, open spaces.

The “Révolution Haussmannienne” that transformed Paris during the second half of the 19th century also
modified the aesthetics of private buildings. Construction norms were created and enforced in order to
ensure a sense of unity between the different buildings.
The “immeuble haussmannien” (Haussmann building) was born (Illustration 10). This type of building had to have a
ground floor and an entresol (an intermediate floor); a third floor called the “noble floor”, with balconies; fourth and
fifth floors in the same style but slightly less ornaments; a sixth floor with a continuous balcony and a 45-degree roof.
The facades must be perfectly aligned, without any sunken or protruding elements.
Inside these buildings, the interior design is also carefully planned. The beautiful marble fireplaces in the styles of
Louis XV, Louis XIV or Louis XVI are called “cheminées haussmanniennes”, or “Haussmann fireplaces”.
 The Parvis de Notre-Dame, place The medieval Île de la Cité The Ile de la Cité, in the center of
Jean-Paul II. before the Haussmann Paris, transformed by Haussmann: in Haussmann building façade, Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street;
renovation (Vaugondy map, red, new transverse streets; in light place Saint Georges, Paris. Rainy Day, 1877, Art Institute of
1771). blue, new public spaces; in dark blue, Chicago.
new buildings.

Confetti battle on the Parisian

Boulevard Haussmann, lined