La Rotonde de la Villette

This is not the first time (see previous post) I talk about this building, “La Rotonde de la Villette”, but after a long period of restoration it has recently opened to public. There is a restaurant and a bar and different facilities can be rented for meetings, expositions, cultural events …

The building was part of the toll barrier built in the 1780’s, just before the Revolution, “The Wall of the Farmers General”, which surrounded what then was Paris. Tax had to be paid for goods entering the city. A number of bars and restaurants (“guinguettes”) could be found just outside the wall, with “tax-free” prices. The unpopular taxes were abolished during the Revolutionary years, but rather soon again resumed. In 1860 it was decided that the surrounding villages – Belleville, Montmartre, Batignolles, Passy… (see map) should be incorporated and the wall disappeared. However, the payment of tolls remained until 1943, but the collect was displaced to the new Paris borders.

Until 1860, the toll had to be paid in some 60 buildings, part of the “Wall of the Farmers General”. Only four remain, Place de la Nation (“Barrière du Trone” – actually two buildings, see previous post), Place Denfert-Rochereau (« Barrière d’Enfer », also two buildings, see previous post), Parc Monceau (« Barrière de Chartres », see previous post) and this one, situated where the Canal Saint Martin and the Bassin de la Villette meet (« La Rotonde de la Villette », also referred to as « Barrière de Saint Martin »).  (See previous posts about the Bassin and the Canal.)

“La Rotonde” became later a home for the municipal guard and even later – until 1921 – a salt warehouse, and then, until quite recently, it housed some municipal administrations.

Philippe Auguste wall

I have already made some posts on the different walls that have surrounded the ever bigger Paris.

There is still a rather large number of traces of the Philippe Auguste wall from around 1200. So far I have posted about the largest visible part in the St. Paul area and also about some more discrete ones along the Rue des Francs Bourgeois. I have also referred to one in the small alley, Cour de Commerce St. André and its adjacent court, Cour de Rohan.

Since I made this later post, the place where one of the towers is hidden, a showroom, is under renovation which makes the view through the windows easier. On top of what can be seen is a private home, still inside the tower.

I was told about another trace in an underground parking place, rue Mazarine. I have no car any more, but you can of course enter also as a pedestrian. I wonder how many of the car owners realise that some of the walls are some 700 years old. Paris was on lower grounds when the wall was built and it can be seen as well on the first as the second underground floor.