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Fires in the Paris Commune

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Fires in Paris during the Commune
Panorama of fires in Paris from 23 to 25 May - Lithograph by Auguste Victor Deroy, Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

The fires of Paris during the Paris Commune of 1871 refer to the widespread destruction of public monuments and private buildings in the city, particularly during "Bloody Week" (Semaine sanglante), which took place from 21 to 28 May 1871. This was the period when government forces from Versailles recaptured Paris from the Communards.

Most of the fires were set by members of the Commune, known as Communards or Federates, between 22 and 26 May. Notable buildings damaged or destroyed included the Tuileries Palace, the Palais-Royal, the Palais de Justice, and the Hôtel de Ville. Some landmarks, such as Notre-Dame de Paris, were spared. In addition to symbolic sites, private residences were also set ablaze, often as a defensive measure to hinder the advance of government troops.

The use of fire by the Communards has been interpreted in various ways: as a desperate military tactic, a symbolic act of political defiance, or a form of revolutionary expression. The decision to destroy these buildings was made in the final days of the Commune, when centralized control had largely broken down and many actions were taken on local initiative amidst the chaos of the Commune's collapse.

In the aftermath, the fires became a central element in the contested memory of the Commune. For supporters of the Versailles government, the destruction was cited as evidence of the Communards' alleged savagery, with particular emphasis placed on the role of women, leading to the emergence of the pétroleuses myth—female incendiaries accused of setting fires. The ruins of the destroyed buildings were not immediately rebuilt, and many became subjects of artistic and touristic interest. Numerous photographs captured the extent of the destruction. The loss of archives and official records in the fires also contributed to a significant erosion of historical documentation, leaving gaps in Paris's institutional memory.

Paris under siege (September 1870-May 1871)

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Main article: Siege of Paris (1870–1871)

Prussian bombing and the barricade

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Official fire protection poster, January 1871. Musée Carnavalet.

France declared war on Prussia on 19 July 1870, initiating the Franco-Prussian War. Following the surrender of Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan in early September, Parisians proclaimed the establishment of the Third Republic on 4 September 1870. However, hostilities continued, and from 20 September 1870, Paris came under siege by Prussian forces.[1] During the siege, Prussian artillery regularly bombarded the city, particularly affecting the Left Bank, where numerous residential buildings were destroyed.[2] The continuous cannonade instilled fear among the city's inhabitants. Fighting around Paris in the autumn and winter of 1870–1871 led to widespread destruction, with both French and Prussian forces responsible for the burning of buildings, bridges, farms, millstones, and forested areas. In January 1871, a series of fires broke out in Paris as a result of the shelling, although these incidents were quickly contained.[3]

The fear of Paris being destroyed by an invading force—an anxiety rooted in the legacy of the French Revolution, which served as a key ideological reference for the Paris Commune—was a recurring theme among 19th-century Parisian revolutionaries. This fear gradually transformed into a revolutionary resolve among some Communards to reshape and, if necessary, destroy the existing urban landscape.[4] A central element of this approach was the barricade, which played both a defensive and symbolic role during the Commune. Beyond its military function, the barricade served to reconfigure public space, often constructed from everyday materials, including furniture and household items. This erasure of boundaries between private and public space marked the beginning of a broader revolutionary impulse to transform the city, ultimately culminating in the deliberate burning of parts of Paris during the final days of the Commune.[5][6][4]

Second siege of Paris, 2 April to 21 May 1871. Map by Charles Prolès and Rougeron-Vignerot, 1892. BNF.

The siege of the Versailles army

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Main article: Chronology of the Paris Commune

Following the uprising of 18 March 1871, which marked the beginning of the Paris Commune, France entered a period of civil conflict. On one side was the national government, led by Adolphe Thiers and based in Versailles with the support of the National Assembly; on the other was the Commune, which exercised authority over Paris, despite unsuccessful efforts to inspire similar revolutionary movements in the provinces.[7][8]

The second siege of Paris, this time led by government forces, lasted from 11 April to 21 May 1871. Thiers adopted a cautious, methodical strategy to surround and isolate the city. Paris, still fortified by the defensive walls originally commissioned by Thiers decades earlier, was treated as a military stronghold.[4] The Versailles government proceeded carefully to avoid a military setback that might result in political instability, including the risk of army disintegration, uprisings in other major cities, or foreign—particularly Prussian—intervention.[9]

The Versailles army subjected the Parisian suburbs and surrounding forts to sustained bombardment, surpassing even the intensity of the Prussian shelling during the earlier siege. The objective was to disable Paris’s outer defenses and breach its walls. This escalation in violence further galvanized the Communards, some of whom viewed the potential destruction of the city as preferable to surrender.[4]

Fires broke out in several western and suburban areas, including Auteuil, Passy, Courbevoie, Asnières, Levallois-Perret, Clichy, Gennevilliers, and Montrouge. These were caused either by artillery strikes from the Versailles forces or deliberate actions by Communard fighters. Although incendiary plans reportedly existed for Bagneux and Vanves, the rapid advance of the Versailles army prevented their implementation. In total, relatively few fires were set in the western parts of Paris.[10]

The fires of Bloody Week

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During Bloody Week, the chronology of destruction by fire is that of the recapture of Paris by Versailles troops, from west to east, from Sunday 21 May to Sunday 28 May 1871.[11]

West, Monday, 22 May

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Map of Paris with exact indication of burnt houses and monuments. A. Carcireux, Paris, 1871.

Following an initial fire at the Champ de Mars barracks,[12] a more significant blaze broke out on the evening of Monday, 22 May 1871, in the attic of the Ministry of Finance and later along rue de Rivoli,[12][13][11] According to several accounts, the fire was initially triggered by shells fired by Versailles troops.[12][13] It was subsequently extinguished by the Commune’s fire brigade.[12]

The cause of the fire at the Ministry of Finance became a point of contention in the aftermath of the Paris Commune. As the first major fire during the final days of the conflict, it was viewed by both sides as a symbolic and strategic turning point. Each faction accused the other of initiating the act, which was seen as a precedent for the larger-scale fires that followed. Many exiled Communards attributed the fire to bombardment by Versailles artillery, a claim echoed by some Versailles sympathizers, including the writer Catulle Mendès.[14] In contrast, anti-Communard author Maxime Du Camp alleged that there were two separate incidents at the Ministry: the first, on 22 May, caused by government shelling and extinguished by the Communards; and a second, on the following day, allegedly set intentionally by the Communards themselves.[15][16]

The first major fires: Tuesday, 23 May

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Until 23 May 1871, Versailles forces encountered relatively little resistance in their advance into Paris. However, the first major fires began that evening, coinciding with intensified defense efforts by the Communards.[17] Following preparations completed around 6 p.m., several significant buildings were set ablaze during the night of 23–24 May, including the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, the Palais d'Orsay (which housed the Cour des Comptes), the Caisse des Dépôts, the Tuileries Palace, and multiple nearby streets.[12][11][18] Rue de Lille was among the most heavily affected.[16] In response, the Versaillais temporarily halted their advance, opting to resume operations the following day to avoid the fires.[17]

The Tuileries Palace served as the headquarters of the insurgent general Jules Bergeret, who commanded approximately 600 men. As Versailles troops approached,[16] Bergeret, along with Alexis Dardelle, Étienne Boudin, and Victor Bénot, ordered the palace to be set on fire.[19][20][21] Dardelle, appointed governor of the Tuileries by the Commune on 22 March 1871, oversaw the operation.[22] On 23 May, flammable materials—including gunpowder, liquid tar, turpentine, and petroleum—were brought in and used to soak drapes, curtains, and wooden floors. Barrels of gunpowder were also placed in key locations, such as the Salon des Maréchaux and at the base of the Grand Staircase.[23][21][24] Dardelle organized the evacuation of horses, harnesses, and valuable items, instructing staff to leave in anticipation of the imminent explosion.[22] The fire was ignited using large flaming torches, and Dardelle and Bergeret later observed the blaze from the terrace of the Louvre. The Tuileries Palace continued to burn until Friday, 26 May.[17][22][24]

The same evening, the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur was also set on fire. The act was attributed to Émile Eudes,[19][20] reportedly following orders from the Comité de Salut Public.[22] Another individual, Émile Gois, was named during a trial in 1872 as having issued the order, although definitive evidence is lacking.[25][26] Elsewhere, fires in the Madeleine district and at the Croix-Rouge crossroads were used as defensive measures to slow the advance of Versailles troops. These areas were defended by Communard leaders Eugène Varlin and Maxime Lisbonne.[17][notes 1]

Around the City Hall, Wednesday, 24 May

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Paris set on fire in May 1871. Paris archive

On 24 May 1871, during the final days of the Paris Commune, widespread fires broke out across the city. Notable sites affected included the Louvre Palace[11]—despite General Bergeret's later claims of opposition—[20]as well as houses on rue Saint-Honoré, rue de Rivoli, and rue Royale, where seven people died of asphyxiation. The Palais-Royal (lightly damaged), the Hôtel de Ville (destroyed), the Palais de Justice, the Conciergerie, the Préfecture de police, the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin (destroyed),[11] and the Théâtre Lyrique were also targeted.[19] Arsonists reportedly prepared the sites with pyres, barrels of gunpowder, and petrol.[19] The fire at the Palais de Justice was partly caused by the collapse of a large water-filled calorifier used for heating, which ruptured and flooded the building.[27] A report by Édouard Gerspach, chief of staff at the Ministry of Fine Arts, described the state of the Tuileries and the Louvre that same day.[23]

Fire at the Palais de Justice, photograph by Hippolyte Blancard, Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.

The Hôtel de Ville was set on fire by order of Jean-Louis Pindy, its governor since 31 March.[28] Théophile Ferré ordered the burning of the Préfecture de Police and the Palais de Justice around 10 a.m.[12][29][19] Victor Bénot played a key role in the fire at the Palais-Royal[20] and was reportedly responsible for setting fire to the Louvre library.[17] A fire at Place du Château d'Eau that day hindered the Versailles advance.[17] In the afternoon,[29] Maxime Lisbonne detonated the powder magazine in the Luxembourg Garden.[20]

Fires were also set on 23–24 May in houses near barricades, including on rue Saint-Florentin, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, rue du Bac, rue Vavin, place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, and boulevard de Sébastopol.[13][30] Additional buildings destroyed or damaged included the Archives de la Seine, the artillery headquarters on Place de l’Arsenal, the Protestant temple on rue Saint-Antoine, and the barracks on Quai d'Orsay.[19]

East of Paris, 25 and 26 May

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On Thursday, 25 May 1871, the fire at the Hôtel de Ville was extinguished, while a new blaze began at the Greniers d’Abondance, a food storage facility located on Boulevard Bourdon.[11][31]

On Friday, 26 May, fires broke out at the docks in La Villette, where large quantities of explosives were stored.[31] Flames also surrounded the July Column in Place de la Bastille. The following day, 27 May, fires were reported in Belleville and at the Père-Lachaise Cemetery.[32]

Several other sites in eastern Paris were also affected by fire. These included the capsule on rue de l'Orme, the Théâtre des Délassements-Comiques, the Église Notre-Dame-de-la-Nativité de Bercy, and the 12th arrondissement town hall. Jean Fenouillas was executed in 1873 for his role in the latter two fires.[33] Additional damage occurred at the Gobelins factory[19] and in residential areas near barricades on rue de Bondy, boulevard Mazas,[notes 2] boulevard Beaumarchais,[13][30] and other streets..

Despite the scale of destruction, fires generally remained contained to their intended targets. The broad avenues created by Baron Haussmann’s urban renovations functioned effectively as firebreaks, limiting accidental spread.[17]

Heat and light, smells and sounds

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Throughout the Bloody Week, staff at the Paris Observatory in the Luxembourg Garden continued to record weather data, except on 24 May, when the site was on the front line. These records show that from 21 to 25 May 1871, temperatures at midday rose from 18°C to 25°C, with dry conditions and light to moderate winds—an unseasonably warm period.[34]

  • Fires at Tuileries and Hôtel de ville
  • Incendie des Tuileries - Lithograph by Léon Sabatier and Albert Adam Paris et ses ruines, 1873 - Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.
    Incendie des Tuileries - Lithograph by Léon Sabatier and Albert Adam Paris et ses ruines, 1873 - Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.
  • Hôtel de ville fire - Lithograph by Léon Sabatier and Albert Adam Paris et ses ruines, 1873 - Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.
    Hôtel de ville fire - Lithograph by Léon Sabatier and Albert Adam Paris et ses ruines, 1873 - Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.
  • Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer L'incendie de l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris. Paris through the ages, Firmin Didot, 1885.
    Theodor Josef Hubert Hoffbauer L'incendie de l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris. Paris through the ages, Firmin Didot, 1885.

Many Parisians climbed to rooftops or upper floors to observe the fires. The nighttime blazes created dramatic and unsettling scenes across the city. An anonymous resident of rue Saint-Denis described a sky illuminated red by fire, calling it an "infernal horizon." Contemporary observers, including a young American woman, expressed deep fear, with the fires considered among the most terrifying episodes of the Commune. In areas recaptured by Versailles forces, the destruction intensified resentment: some civilians assaulted captured Communards, blaming them for the fires, while others responded with stunned silence. As writer Ludovic Halévy remarked, “We can't find a word to say".[35]

Weather conditions shifted on 26 May, with cooler temperatures (dropping to 17°C),[34] overcast skies, and rain. The showers soaked both fighters and terrain but helped control the fires.[36] The wind turned westward, carrying smoke away from the front lines, which had moved eastward.[35]

On 27 May, fog and steady rainfall further aided in extinguishing the flames.[37] With Versailles forces close to victory, some interpreted the rain as a providential sign. By 28 May, the weather cleared, temperatures rose to 20°C, and strong eastward winds fanned the last remaining fires as the Commune’s final resistance collapsed.[34]

Monuments spared

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La Sainte Chapelle, miraculously preserved in the Palais de Justice fire, 24 May 1871. Lithograph by Sabatier and Adam, Paris et ses ruines, 1873.

Despite widespread fires during the final days of the Paris Commune, several prominent buildings escaped destruction. Adjacent to the burning Palais de Justice, the Sainte-Chapelle remained intact. A fire may have been briefly ignited inside Notre-Dame de Paris using chairs and benches, but it was quickly extinguished by local residents.[11] According to Versailles sources, this was an aborted arson attempt; however, other accounts suggest the Communards deliberately refrained from targeting the cathedral, likely to avoid harming wounded federates sheltered in the nearby Hôtel-Dieu and because Notre-Dame was not among their primary political symbols.[38] In general, churches were not targeted by arson, despite the Commune's strong anticlerical stance. The reasons for this restraint remain uncertain. The Hôtel-Dieu hospital, though within reach, was not set on fire—reportedly because the evacuation of the sick occurred too late, by which time the area had been retaken by Versailles forces.[11][14]

Order given to citizens Debock and Alavoine to prevent by all means any attempt to set fire to the Archives Nationales. Archives de Paris.

The Bank of France was also spared, largely due to the intervention of Charles Beslay, the Commune’s commissioner.[39] and the deputy governor, the Marquis de Ploeuc. Beslay later explained that he had acted to prevent violence from the Commune’s radical factions and claimed credit for preserving France’s financial stability.[40][41]

Third list of monuments, dwellings and establishments destroyed or damaged by the incendiaries of the Commune. Poster, 1871, 54.5 x 35.2 cm. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

Other cultural institutions were also protected. The Archives Nationales, the Bibliothèque Mazarine, and the Bibliothèque du Luxembourg were saved by the efforts of both their administrators and moderate Communards.[19] Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury, director of the Archives, and Louis-Guillaume Debock, delegate at the Imprimerie Nationale, successfully opposed arson plans.[42] Debock, stationed at the printing works next to the Archives, reportedly prevented their destruction by threatening an arsonist commander with a revolver on 24 May.[43][14]

According to historian Jean-Claude Caron, between 216 and 238 buildings were destroyed or damaged by fire, though much of Paris remained untouched. The symbolic weight of the buildings that burned—such as the Hôtel de Ville—amplified the perceived scale of destruction. The last fires were extinguished on 2 June. Apart from the seven known victims of asphyxiation, reports of fire-related deaths are often regarded as unreliable due to their anti-Communard bias.[32] Most houses were set alight after residents had been evacuated.[14] Based on post-Commune compensation claims, historian Hélène Lewandowski estimated that at least 581 buildings were damaged, including 186 residences and 32 public buildings.[16]

The Commune and the fire

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Right side of medal: La Commune de Paris 1871;
reverse side of medal: Le citoyen Parisel chef de la délégation scientifique des poudres et salpêtres 14 May 1871

On 22 April 1871, the Paris Commune established a Scientific Delegation headed by pharmacist François-Louis Parisel.[44][45][46] The delegation was tasked with overseeing food safety, aerostatics, poisons, and new methods of destruction.[44] Parisel called for the invention of chemical weapons and incendiary devices, though most proposals submitted were impractical.[46] Records show he purchased small quantities of materials for experiments but did not accumulate large stores of flammable substances,[45][46] On 16 May, he was instructed to organize "Fuseen artillerymen"; by 18 May, twenty-seven had been officially formed.[45]

As fighting intensified in late May, theComité de salut public ordered the collection of all chemical and incendiary materials, to be concentrated in the 11th arrondissement.[20] On 24 May, it created brigades of fuséens—400 men commanded by Jean-Baptiste Millière, Louis-Simon Dereure, Alfred-Édouard Billioray, and Pierre Vésinier—with a mission to ignite "suspicious houses and public monuments." These organizational efforts came too late to have major effect.[45] Nonetheless, the Commune had stored petrol, gunpowder, and incendiary projectiles in parts of eastern Paris, later recovered by Versailles forces.[47]

The Commune's use of fire in urban warfare reflected a mix of improvisation and fragmented planning.[48] Orders to burn buildings were typically issued in active combat zones, but many fires were set spontaneously by small groups of fighters.[20] As the Commune's command structure disintegrated, local initiative and disorganization prevailed. Isolated federate units, often outnumbered and surrounded, resorted to lighting fires in the heat of combat, sometimes using kerosene.[49][14]

Anti-Communard sources circulated rumors of widespread arson: incendiary eggs, booby-trapped sewers, houses marked for destruction, and firebombs launched by balloon. These stories, though unsubstantiated, framed the Communards’ actions as criminal and illegitimate. The Versailles press described alleged petroleum-equipped arson units, particularly in connection with the Palais-Royal fire. However, most of the 117 individuals arrested for fire-related acts after the Commune were released, and many appear to have refused orders to assist in arson, with some attempting to extinguish fires amid the fighting.[47]

This atmosphere of suspicion persisted after the Commune’s fall. Writing on 31 May, Émile Zola described a lingering climate of fear in Paris, with widespread paranoia about continued arson and mistrust among citizens, dubbing it the "Terror of Fire.[50][20]

Communards and responsibility for fires

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Victor Bénot, sentenced for the Tuileries fire and the Rue de Lille fire.
Louis Decamps, sentenced for the Tuileries fire and the Rue de Lille fire.

Following the suppression of the Paris Commune, the Versailles army launched a widespread crackdown on suspected arsonists, banning the oil trade and actively searching for individuals accused of setting fires.[32] Judicial records indicate that 175 people were formally accused of arson. Among approximately 40,000 Communards tried by military courts, only 41 were prosecuted specifically for arson. Of these, 16 received death sentences (five were carried out; the rest were commuted), and 24 were sentenced to hard labor. Notable convictions included Baudoin for the fire at Saint-Eloi church, Victor Bénot for the Tuileries Palace fire, and Louis Decamps for a fire on rue de Lille. Including convictions in absentia, roughly 100 individuals were sentenced, although the actual number of arsonists was likely higher, as they were more difficult to apprehend than armed combatants.[51]

Initially, arsonists were categorized as common criminals and excluded from Henri Brisson's first amnesty proposal in 1871. However, the general amnesty granted in 1880 made no such distinctions.[52]

Responsibility for the fires remained a contested issue. Some, like Pierre Vésinier, denied Communard involvement, attributing the destruction solely to Versailles shelling—a claim with limited support. Others, such as Arthur Arnould, Gustave Lefrançais, and Jean Allemane, suggested that agents of the former Second Empire were responsible, possibly seeking to destroy incriminating documents. Lefrançais acknowledged Communard responsibility only for the fires at the Tuileries and the Greniers d’Abondance, which he defended, but condemned the destruction of the Hôtel de Ville.[53]

Accounts also attribute some fires to personal motives, including vendettas and financial incentives. Jules Andrieu reported that former employees set fires in shops, while Louise Michel claimed some property owners committed arson to conceal bankruptcy or collect compensation.[53] Several Communards, including Eugène Vermersch, Victorine Brocher,[53] Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray, and Gustave Paul Cluseret,[54] defended the use of fire as a legitimate revolutionary act.[53]

Tactical choice, strategy of despair, and apocalyptic sovereignty party

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From the end of the Bloody Week, attributing responsibility for the fires became a significant political issue. While a few fires—such as those at the Ministry of Finance and in Belleville—were almost certainly caused by Versailles artillery, the majority were attributed to the Communards.[53]

At the corner of boulevards Voltaire and Richard-Lenoir, a barricade defends the 11th arrondissement town hall, where the Commune retreated on 25 May. Photo by Bruno Braquehais, Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.

Though fires had occurred in earlier revolutions, such as those of July 1830 and February 1848, they remained limited due to the swift success of those uprisings.[55] In contrast, the Commune fought a prolonged, defensive urban war.[45] Fire was used tactically, particularly to hinder Versailles forces who advanced by breaching walls along streets—a method known as cheminement. In response,[38] Communards set fire to buildings supporting barricades, creating barriers of flame to protect their retreat.[45][17] For instance, the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin was burned on 24 May to enable a withdrawal toward the Bastille.[56][53]

However, strategic necessity does not fully explain the use of fire.[13] Some Communards viewed it as a desperate final act. A slogan attributed to Louis Charles Delescluze: "Moscow rather than Sedan ",[53][55] encapsulated this mindset. Louise Michel had similarly declared: “Paris will be ours or Paris will no longer exist!".[57] Versailles military authorities, such as General Appert, believed the fires were a last-minute decision taken when defeat was imminent.[58][16]

On a symbolic level, the destruction targeted monuments associated with state power, centralized authority, and the institutions of monarchy, the Church, and the army.[13] These acts were interpreted as revolutionary iconoclasm, paralleling the earlier destruction of the Vendôme Column and Adolphe Thiers' residence.[38] The burning of the Hôtel de Ville, headquarters of the Commune, was seen by some as a refusal to let the symbol of their political project fall into enemy hands.[49][59] Others, like Jules Andrieu, dismissed its significance, viewing it as a place of past betrayals.[19][54][38]

The fire at the Tuileries Palace, a powerful emblem of imperial rule, was especially symbolic. It followed a festive concert held there on 20 May and was witnessed by cheering crowds on 24 May.[60][61] Communard Gustave Lefrançais later admitted to feeling joy at its destruction. For some, the flames served not only as instruments of war but as celebratory illuminations.[35]

Overall, the fires set by the Communards served three main purposes: as a tactical response in chaotic combat, as an assertion of symbolic ownership of the city, and as a form of vengeance. As Jules Andrieu summarized, the fires were "an order given by no one, accepted by everyone".[49]

Images, imagination, and memory of fires

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Illustration by L. Breton for the cover of Louis Énault's Paris brûlé par la Commune, Paris, Henri Plon, 1871.

Wild madness, divine punishment, and flames in the night

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From the end of the Commune, it became the focus of a war of words and images. The violence of the fires lit during the bloody week was central to the descriptions of the Versaillais, who drew on the imagination of the orgy, wild and foreign, with reminders of the Fire of Moscow (1812). Fire is the weapon of "negro revenge", of Barbarians, Huns, Tamerlane... The Commune is described as Nero's child.[62] According to Paul de Saint-Victor:[63]

"In the afterglow of the Paris fire, the world saw how similar tyranny and demagogy are. Nero, through the centuries, passed his torch to Babeuf."

In these speeches, the revolutionary is ultimately no more than a barbarian, an enemy of beauty.[16] He is also a madman, and the fire is proof of this insanity. This interpretation can be found in the works of writers well into the 1890s, whether Edmond de Goncourt in his journal, Paul de Saint-Victor in Barbares et Bandits, Alphonse Daudet in Les Contes du lundi or Émile Zola, in La Débâcle.[21] The Versaillais witnesses did not understand that many of the fires could be explained by the urgent need to defend the barricades, but they did understand that this was a celebration of sovereignty, the Commune's last show of power.[64] For this, the Communards deserve to be punished. The lexical field of hell and divine punishment is invoked, for example by Catholic polemicist Louis Veuillot:[62]

Paris writhes in the flames ignited by the ideas and hands of its sons: the last word of the Commune, itself the last word of the Revolution! [...] Neither Babylon, nor her daughters, nor old Sodom, nor old Gomorrah, have perished so by their own hands. Rain of fire, rain of sulfur, showers of liquid fire, waterspouts of burning iron! [...] God remained silent before the destruction, as he had been since the blasphemy. Jerusalem is obsolete. Since Christ, no city has fallen from this death.

Gustave Boulanger, L'Hôtel de Ville incendié, attaqué par les troupes versaillaises. 65.8cm × 80.5cm, 1871. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

In Versailles' writings, comparisons with the biblical Apocalypse are frequent. This metaphor demonstrates the horror inspired by the Paris Commune,[65][66] while at the same time emphasizing Paris's ability to move forward.[65]

Among the recurring themes of Versailles' texts, the misuse of oil by the Communards appears to be a veritable obsession. The "flotsam and jetsam of oil" is described. Oil, a liquid drawn from the depths of the earth, is equated with hell. For Catholic writers in particular, its use by the Communards seems to demonstrate a link between misguided technical progress and revolution, which serves to underpin a conservative discourse. The same characteristics can be found in the myth of a Paris in danger of exploding due to a network of mines laid by the Communards.[67] In both cases - oil and mines - rumors fed the resentment and fear of Versailles soldiers and contributed to the violence committed.[68]

Émile Haering, known as Numa fils, Paris on fire. Photographed and retouched engraving, circa 1871.Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Charles Leduc. The gunboat La Farcy moored opposite the Tuileries during the burning of Paris on the night of 24 May 1871. Polychrome lithograph, circa 1871. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.

In their pictorial works produced in the immediate aftermath of Bloody Week, artists such as Jules Girardet, Georges Clairin, Édouard Manet, Alfred Darjou, Gustave Courbet, Gustave Boulanger, and Alfred Philippe Roll sought to depict current events to document them. These artists turned to naturalism to bear witness to what they had seen.[69]

Panoramic views of the fires, such as Numa fils' Paris incendié or Charles Leduc's La Cannonnière La Farcy, show the Seine irradiated and reddened by the reflections of the flames as if the river were turning into the lava of a volcano, to which Communard Paris is often compared.[70] The fires of the Commune are most often depicted at night, the darkness responding to the supposed darkness of the Communards' souls. Paris is depicted lit up as if in broad daylight, even by a Communard like Pierre Vésinier:[62]

"A long line of fire lit up Paris as if in broad daylight, separating and bisecting it on the banks of the Seine. The flames were so high they seemed to touch the clouds and lick the sky. They were so intense, so brilliant, that next to them the sun's rays looked like shadows. The hearths from which they escaped were more red-white, more incandescent than the most ardent furnaces [...]; and, from time to time, an immense explosion was heard, immense sprays of flames, flaming globes, sparks, rose to the sky, piercing the clouds, much higher even than the other flames of the fires; they were immense bouquets of fireworks. We had never seen anything so terrifyingly sublime."

In La Débâcle, a novel published more than twenty years after the Commune, Émile Zola also returns to this night mingled with day:[70]

"For three days now, it's been impossible to cast a shadow without the city seeming to catch fire again, as if the darkness had blown over the still-red firebrands, rekindling them, sowing them to the four corners of the horizon. Ah! this hellish city, glowing from dusk onwards, lit for a whole week, illuminating the nights of the bloody week with its monstrous torches! [...] In the bleeding sky, the red districts, ad infinitum, rolled the stream of their ember roofs."

Artists and writers share a common theme: the lexicon used by writers to describe the fires of Bloody Week calls for bright, vivid colors, which are also found in the palette of the artists who depicted these events.[70]

In the history textbooks published in the 20th century, depictions of the fires of Bloody Week, for which the Communards were entirely responsible, formed a major part of the iconography of the pages devoted to the Commune. Barricades and fires embodied the violence of the Commune, especially up until the 1960s when more emphasis was placed on images of those shot.[71]

The Pétroleuses myth

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Les pétroleuses of faubourg Saint-Germain at the 4e Conseil de guerre, engraving by Gustave Froment after a drawing by Maître Guérin, L'Univers illustré, 16 September 1871.

From the moment of their victory, the Versaillais built up the myth of the pétroleuses, highlighted in 1963 by Édith Thomas's pioneering book of the same name.[72] Based on the few examples of women taking part in fires,[73] the Versailles press told numerous stories of women arrested just before starting a fire.[74] A word was coined to describe them, and Théophile Gautier justified its invention: "Pétroleuse, hideous word, which the dictionary had not foreseen: but unknown horrors require appalling neologisms".[75] But the facts did not support this line of argument. Communard women were arrested as canteen workers, ambulance drivers, furnace or hospital workers, or whistle-blowers, but very few were arrested as arsonists. Around 130 women were convicted of taking part in the Commune, but mainly as fighters on the barricades,[73] in a scattered manner, since the women's barricade at the foot of Montmartre is another myth.[76]

On 4 September 1871, five women accused of setting fire to the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur were put on trial. Three were condemned to death (their sentences were later commuted), despite very flimsy evidence. The description of these women is particularly demeaning. The Rétiffe woman's nose is "slightly budded, indicative of poor temperamental habits". We note the "insolent and cynical eye" of the Suétens woman. As for the Bocquin woman, she is described with "a sickly, devious aspect that is both frightening and pitiful at the same time".[73]

The Communards denied the existence of pétroleuses. Louise Michel asserted: "The wildest legends ran about the pétroleuses. There were no pétroleuses". Karl Marx maintained that it was indeed men who started the fires.[73] For the Versaillais, Communard women were considered worse than Communards, who were at least given the excuse of alcoholism: "More relentless than men, they acted with more cynicism; for while the former often drew a stimulant for their energy from alcohol abuse, the latter found this stimulant in their exaltation".[77]

The myth of the pétroleuses corresponds to a pre-existing perception of female violence.[73] The female rioter, more dangerous than the male, has been a figure of popular emotion since the end of the Ancien Régime. The figure of the pétroleuse is, therefore, a reactivation, reminiscent of the knitters of 1793. For the Versaillais, it represents a major transgression of the female figure, through an inversion of sexual roles.[63] Rather than recognizing courageous fighters, it's easier to think of women in fury, torches in hand, fire being the weapon of the weak and the mad. As a result, images of the Communard woman oscillate between two poles: the cantinière and the pétroleuse. The myth spread through media: the press, popular songs, printed images, etc. The pétroleuses are depicted as ugly, dressed in rags and forming small, disturbing groups, "brigades de pétroleuses".[73]

  • Pétroleuses images
  • Bertall, Les Communeux, 1871: Types, caractères, costumes, Paris, Plon, 1880. 49. The barricade. Bibliothèque nationale de France
    Bertall, Les Communeux, 1871: Types, caractères, costumes, Paris, Plon, 1880. 49. The barricade. Bibliothèque nationale de France
  • Bertall, Les Communeux, 1871: Types, caractères, costumes, Paris, Plon, 1880. 32. Pétroleuses. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
    Bertall, Les Communeux, 1871: Types, caractères, costumes, Paris, Plon, 1880. 32. Pétroleuses. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
  • Une pétroleuse. Lithograph by Adrien Marie, engraved by Froment, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 1871.
    Une pétroleuse. Lithograph by Adrien Marie, engraved by Froment, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 1871.
  • Les pétroleuses et leurs complices, drawing by Frédéric Lix in Le Monde illustré, 3 June 1871. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
    Les pétroleuses et leurs complices, drawing by Frédéric Lix in Le Monde illustré, 3 June 1871. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
  • Une pétroleuse. Lithograph by Paul Klenck, Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
    Une pétroleuse. Lithograph by Paul Klenck, Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
  • La Commune: série de portraits avec notice biographique, Paris, Mordret, 1871. Bibliothèque nationale de France
    La Commune: série de portraits avec notice biographique, Paris, Mordret, 1871. Bibliothèque nationale de France
  • The Commune. Lithograph, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 1871.
    The Commune. Lithograph, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 1871.

The insistence in the iconography on the petroleum-filled milk cans of the pétroleuses manifests Versailles' phobia of the metamorphosis of mothers into incendiary madwomen.[63] The women of the Commune are shown as prostitutes or as hysterical and stupid. From allegories of Liberty, the engravings move on to images considered vulgar because they show the free women of the people. The petrolhead with a torch in hand is the antithesis of knowledge or Liberty, whose torch lights up the world.[78]

Burnt memory

[edit]
Document from 1795 rescued from the fire at Paris City Hall in May 1871. Archives de Paris.

These fires were also responsible for the loss of valuable archives, both those of the City of Paris and those of the Palais de Justice.[79] The destruction of the Palais de Justice archives was massive, particularly those of the civil registry (from the outset) and those of the Court of Cassation. Along with the Hôtel de Ville, the civil records of Parisians burned down, leaving only the records kept in the arrondissement town halls since 1860.[42] Thus disappeared the parish registers dating back to the 16th century and the civil registers from 1792 to 31 December 1859. Duplicates of these registers did exist, but they were kept in the Palais de Justice and were destroyed by fire. Between 1872 and 1897, a commission was set up to reconstitute the civil records of Parisians, restoring more than 2.5 million records - a third of those that had disappeared.[80] The commission made use of family papers submitted by private individuals, Catholic registers kept in Paris parishes since the Revolution, death tables from the registry office, etc.[81]

A large part of the Assistance publique archives disappeared when its buildings, close to the Hôtel de Ville, were engulfed in flames. The same was true of part of France's financial archives,[42] as well as most of the archives of the Paris Police Prefecture, only a portion of which was saved along with the Venus de Milo in a vault set up on rue de Jérusalem to protect the famous statue during the siege of Paris by the Prussians.[82][83][84]

Rich libraries also burned, including those of the Louvre, Hôtel de Ville, and the Bar Association.[79] The destroyed Louvre library housed almost 100,000 volumes, while the Hôtel de Ville library held around 150,000. In the Louvre cabinet, many ancient manuscripts dating back to Charles the Bald were lost. Along with the burned monuments went works by great artists such as Charles Le Brun, Antoine Coysevox, Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, etc.[42] In the Gobelins Manufactory, seventy-five tapestries dating from the 15th to 18th centuries burned, including some major pieces.[85] These fires of memory were a major element of the criticism leveled at the Commune.[42]

Ruins and reconstruction

[edit]

Ruin tourism

[edit]
Curiosity. Foreigners visiting the ruins of Paris. Engraving by Daniel Vierge, Le Monde illustré, 24 June 1871. Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.

By June 1871, the Parisian ruins had become a popular destination for strolling. With family or friends, crowds of Parisians flocked to the site, despite the risk of falling stones and unstable façades. English tourists also made the ruins their destination.[86]

Paris, its monuments and ruins. Guide map of 1871, published by Baudel.

Publishers provided illustrated maps, such as Paris, ses monuments et ses ruines, 1870-71.[16] Tourist guides, such as Guide à travers les ruines or Itinéraire des ruines de Paris, offered tours that lasted several days from place to place.[87][88] Comparisons with natural sites or other cities are numerous.[87]

These books offer a glimpse of a battered but reborn city. They focus on the center of Paris, from the Arc de Triomphe to the Bastille. The ruins visited by Parisians were mainly confined to the area between Place Vendôme and Bastille, on the right bank. Texts and photos focus primarily on the Tuileries and the Hôtel de Ville.[89] Visitors collected shell fragments and, above all, monuments.[90]

Numerous collections of photographs were published from 1871 onwards, responding to and stimulating public curiosity.[87] These collections claim to show reality, but they are the result of choice, as are all the photographs taken in connection with the Commune.[91] The images showing the Bloody Week are focused on two subjects, the massacres, and the ruins, tending to demonstrate, according to a Manichean vision, that the Commune is a dead end, and thus obliterating its chronology and possibilities.[92] According to Hélène Lewandowski, the photographic representation of the ruins confines "the Commune within the confines of the Bloody Week, and [condemns] it to the reputation of an incendiary and iconoclastic revolution".[93]

The third siege. - Invasion of the photographers. Albert Robida caricatures the vogue for snapshots of Paris after the Commune. Journal amusant, 1 July 1871.

In 1871-1872, half the photographs in the legal deposit were related to the Commune. Two-thirds of them depict the ruins of Paris.[94] A total of 735 shots were taken of them.[95] From the Second Empire onwards, photographers were mobilized for official propaganda, and, in 1871, the authorities reactivated this function: photographers had to show a very damaged Paris.[38] During the Commune, many photographers, like André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, were out of business. They were either absent from Paris or in hiding. As soon as the Bloody Week was over, they took and published many photos, meeting the need for the development of ruin tourism.[96]

The tight framing of the heavily damaged buildings, with no view of the surrounding area, reinforces the false impression of a largely destroyed city.[94] But while these photographs support the Versailles writings by showing a destroyed Paris, they are also the expression of an aesthetic of ruin. The Grenier d'abondance, a utilitarian building with no symbolic charge, is revealed as a landscape whose alignments of arcades and columns evoke the remains of antiquity, and acquire an aesthetic value. The façades of the Town Hall and the Ministry of Finance also lend themselves to this aestheticism. Photographers insist on the picturesqueness of these remains.[95] They ventured into destroyed buildings in search of the details that made the debris a ruin, as it was seen and defined in their time.[97] The commercial success of these collections of photographs can be explained by this dual objective: to document the results of the Commune fires, while at the same time casting a gaze that transfigures the rubble by transforming it into ruins and landscapes.[69]

  • Photographs of the ruins of Paris published after Bloody Week
  • Paris City Hall. Photograph published in 1872.
    Paris City Hall. Photograph published in 1872.
  • Paris City Hall, inner courtyard. Photograph by Alphonse Liébert, 1871. Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.
    Paris City Hall, inner courtyard. Photograph by Alphonse Liébert, 1871. Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris.
  • Ministry of Finance, rue de Rivoli.
    Ministry of Finance, rue de Rivoli.
  • Ministry of Finance, rue de Rivoli. Photograph published in 1871. Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris
    Ministry of Finance, rue de Rivoli. Photograph published in 1871. Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris
  • Tuileries Palace. Photograph by Jean-Eugène Durand.
    Tuileries Palace. Photograph by Jean-Eugène Durand.
  • Attic of abundance. Photograph by Jean Andrieu. Paris Museums.
    Attic of abundance. Photograph by Jean Andrieu. Paris Museums.
  • Corner of rue de Lille and rue du Bac. Photograph by Jean Andrieu. 1871, Musée Carnavalet, Paris
    Corner of rue de Lille and rue du Bac. Photograph by Jean Andrieu. 1871, Musée Carnavalet, Paris
  • Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, with the Palais d'Orsay in the background. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
    Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, with the Palais d'Orsay in the background. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
  • Palais d'Orsay. Photograph by Alphonse Liébert, 1871. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Palais d'Orsay. Photograph by Alphonse Liébert, 1871. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • Grande salle du Conseil d'État, in the Palais d'Orsay. Photograph by Charles Soulier, 1871. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Grande salle du Conseil d'État, in the Palais d'Orsay. Photograph by Charles Soulier, 1871. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • Title page of a collection of photographs published in 1871. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
    Title page of a collection of photographs published in 1871. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The beauty and exoticism of Parisian ruins

[edit]
Ruins of the Tuileries after the fire of 1871, oil on canvas by Eugène Bellangé, Paris, Musée Carnavalet.

The nineteenth century was a century of ruins: their poetics permeated contemporaries, who were particularly sensitive to them.[98] Monuments burnt down in 1871 were not immediately rebuilt. Ruins thus marked the Parisian landscape for years to come. They were seen with a romantic eye, and many emphasized their beauty.[87] As early as 3 June, poet Augustine-Malvina Blanchecotte noted in Tablettes d'une femme pendant la Commune:[99]

"City Hall. What a magnificent ruin! Dare I say it? I love ruins. These beautiful open windows, in the full sky, these splendid aerial arches where so many mysteries with so much unknown wind must like to pass the evening; these doors without rooms, fantastic; these dizzy staircases, insane, without reason to be, suspended in the life, without exit that space [...] were quite a dream."

Edmond de Goncourt enthusiastically described the colorful rubble of the Hôtel de Ville:[99][87]

"The ruin is magnificent, splendid. The ruin with its rose-colored tones, its ash-colored tones, its green tones, its white-reddened iron tones, the shining ruin of agatization, which the petroleum-baked stone has taken on, resembles the ruin of an Italian palace, colored by the sun of several centuries, or, better still, the ruin of a magical palace, bathed in an opera of electric gleams and reflections."

This parallel with the vestiges that wealthy tourists contemplate in Italy is widely used. Sir William Erskine, in a letter dated 7 June 1871, compares:[100]

"I've just seen the Paris City Hall in its ruins, lovingly caressed by a splendid setting sun; I've never imagined anything more beautiful; it's superb. The people of the Commune are awful scoundrels, I don't deny, but what artists! [...] I've seen the ruins of Amalfi bathed in the azure waves of the Mediterranean, the ruins of the temples of Tung-hoor in the Punjab; I've seen Rome and many other things: nothing can compare with what I've had before my eyes this evening.

Other archaeological remains are also evoked, such as Baalbek or Palmyra.[87] In another register, Louise Michel was also sensitive to the uncertain beauty of ruins:[99]

"The ruins of the fire of despair are marked with a strange seal. City Hall, from its empty windows like the eyes of the dead, watched for ten years as the revenge of the peoples came; the great peace of the world that we still await, it would still be watching if the ruin had been pulled down."

The Tuileries (May 1871). Oil on canvas by Ernest Meissonier, begun in 1871 and completed in 1883. Château de Compiègne.

The Ministry of Finance, regarded as an uninteresting recent building, acquired an aesthetic value because its remains were reminiscent of ancient ruins. But it was the remains of the Hôtel de Ville that were most admired, for the picturesqueness of this jagged ensemble whose elements were in unstable equilibrium.[101] Joris-Karl Joris-Karl Huysmans goes so far as to humorously suggest that monuments (the Bourse, the Madeleine, the Opéra, etc.) are burned to beautify them, because in his words: "Fire is the essential artist of our time ".[99] Nevertheless, descriptions of the ruins note the absence of vegetation, which made Parisian ruins less beautiful than their ancient counterparts, while fire had created the illusion of an ancient vestige.[102] By artificially aging the buildings, fire created an archaeological fiction.[103]

The indecency of this aestheticism is not lost on commentators such as Louis Énault, who confesses: "The artist killed the citizen in me, and I couldn't help saying to myself: 'It's terrible, but it's beautiful!".[102]

In a painting perhaps inspired by contemporary photographs and entitled The Tuileries (May 1871), Ernest Meissonier brutally places the viewer at the heart of the ruin, in the Salle des Maréchaux in the center of the Tuileries.[104] In the foreground is a pile of rubble, the remains of the grand staircase.[105] The perspective shows the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, a reminder of the First Empire. This painting is a political critique of the Commune, which Meissonnier disliked. However, when Meissonnier completed the painting and exhibited it in 1883, the work took on a new meaning. It becomes a reminder of the ruins demolished in 1883, and an expression of nostalgia, reinforced by the Latin expression at the bottom of the painting, which links the Second Empire to Roman ruins:[104] Gloria Maiorum per flammas usque superstes, Maius MDCCCLXXI.[105]

The buildings burnt down in 1871 also fed the nostalgic imagination around the fictional ruins of the French capital, a literary genre that pre-existed the Commune.[106]

Rebuilding?

[edit]

On 27 May 1871, while the fighting was still going on, Adolphe Thiers appointed Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, who had worked with Prefect Georges-Eugène Haussmann, as Director of Works for Paris. Many architects who had worked under the Second Empire, some of whom built monuments that burned down, continued their careers under the nascent Third Republic: Théodore Ballu, Gabriel Davioud, Paul Abadie, Hector-Martin Lefuel... Within the space of a few years, the State and the City of Paris had regained the financial means to finance the work.[107] As early as June 1871, work began on repairing slightly damaged monuments and clearing away ruins.[108]

Half of the thirty or so public monuments more or less affected by the fire were of recent construction, dating from the Second Empire: these buildings were therefore not charged with history and symbolism, and for many, their disappearance was not considered a real loss, even by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.[109][16] Discussions took place on the future of these remains. Le Figaro received letters calling for the Hôtel de Ville rubble to be retained.[110] Étienne Arago supported the same point of view, in the name of historical pedagogy:[111]

"The savage beauty of the burnt-out Hôtel de Ville, which I saw by day and by night, is perhaps second only to the striking effect of any other surviving fragment of an ancient monument. [...] By surrounding these dear, dark debris with a public garden, Paris would offer foreigners a marvelous historical curiosity, and, what is better, perpetuate a memory that would be a great lesson for its population."

But the need for administrative continuity prevailed.[110] The new Hôtel de Ville, rebuilt identically, was completed after ten years, in 1882.[38][112]

L'Hôtel de ville en reconstruction, oil on canvas by Paul-Joseph-Victor Dargaud, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 1880.

The remains of the Tuileries were leveled at the same time, in 1883 and 1884[113][87] after a debate oscillating between rebuilding the palace and conserving the remains.[114][110][115] Many projects were proposed, showing that the reborn Republic was reluctant to definitively destroy these emblematic remains of the Second Empire.[116] This work was preceded by the rapid reconstruction of the Palais de la Légion d'honneur, financed by members of the national order of the Legion of Honour and completed in 1874.[117]

There was a certain degree of continuity between the Haussmannization of the Second Empire and the work carried out in Paris in the 1870s, which often completed projects begun before the war and the Commune,[118] except that the Third Republic built more utilitarian buildings linked to the industrial revolution than palaces.[16] Hélène Lewandowski believes that the fires "offered the new ruling class the opportunity to promote more sober, functional projects".[119] Thus, the remains of the Palais d'Orsay, where the Cour des Comptes was based, remained the longest-lived until they were purchased in 1897 by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans to build the Gare d'Orsay for the Exposition Universelle (1900).[110][117]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Carrefour de la Croix-Rouge is now Place Michel-Debré
  2. ^ Boulevard Mazas is now boulevard Diderot.

References

[edit]
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Bibliography

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