Montagne Sainte-Geneviève

The Montagne Sainte -Geneviève ( hill of Saint Genoveva ) is a natural elevation in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, which is named after the patron saint of Paris Geneviève. He rises from the left bank ( Rive Gauche ) of the Seine at a height of 61 meters and is topped by the Panthéon. In former times flowed at its eastern foot of the now running underground and connected to the sewerage system Bièvre which opens at the height of the eastern tip of the Ile de la Cité in the River Seine.

On the slopes of the hill was the Latin Quarter.

History

The banks of the Seine in the Paris area were inhabited since the Neolithic period. The first Celtic settlement of the Parisii focused on the larger islands of the Seine, which was called Lutetia.

Gallo - Roman period

In the wake of the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar was captured after the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, also Lutetia by the Romans, an event through which the small village of Lutetia had turned into a Gallo-Roman city. The new rulers for strategic reasons, chose to build a new city after the Roman model, the dominant position on the northern slope of the hill that rose on the Rive Gauche, the left, the southern bank of the Seine. From there they were able to observe the Gallic island settlement and the Seine, and thus also control the trade on the Seine. The oldest remains of a Roman settlement dating to around the turn of the millennium, the beginning of the 1st century AD It was a typical Roman colony, a provincial town newly established to secure conquered territories. Its center was the only built a few meters below the summit of the hill forum.

To the Romans remembered today at the Montagne Sainte -Geneviève - apart from the amphitheater and thermal baths - only with the two perpendicular scale main transport axes according to the Roman scheme designed grid pattern road network. The south extending from the north Cardo corresponds to the Rue Saint -Jacques. He was relieved of the parallel via inferior Boulevard Saint -Michel. A half Decumanus has been clearly identified only on the right bank of the Rue Saint- Antoine, the course of the leads from the east to the west main Dekumanus the left bank is questionable. It was built over the course of centuries and is no longer visible today. He could have done by today's Jardin du Luxembourg, or which were in place on Rue des Ecoles. All other streets ran parallel to these two axes and divided the city into equal-sized blocks of flats, known as insulae. The streets are now still in the same place.

The forum, a marketplace and a meeting place and thus the center of each Roman city was located on the top of Genoveva mountain, about 200 meters west of the Pantheon, from west of the Boulevard Saint -Michel, to the south of the Rue Sufflot and east the Rue Saint- Jacques ( Cardo ) limited.

The year of construction is to be set in the middle of the 1st century AD, ie 41-79 AD. The uniformity of the plan suggests a single architect, but were also stylistic features, found eg at column capitals, suggesting alterations in the 2nd century AD.

The forum was limited to the middle round of open colonnades, on the west side there was a covered hall, called Basilica, both served as trade as well as court space. Access to the Forum took place via two gates on the north and the south.

Another device that was found in almost all Roman cities, were the baths, public baths, which not only served alone for swimming but also for personal care and hygiene in general contributed. They also represented a kind of social meeting point represents the Parisian spas are still partially preserved. They were in the streets, Boulevard Saint -Germain and Rue des Ecoles. They covered exactly one block ( insula ) in the rectangular plan of the Roman town. Today is in its place the main courtyard of the Musée National du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages ).

In particular, because of the spas was the Roman city of a huge demand for water, so that water from the surrounding area using an aqueduct had to be procured. Water from sources in today's places Chilly -Mazarin, Morangis, Wissous and Paray -Vieille -Poste, which are all located about 16 km south of Paris, was conducted using a 26- km-long system of canals and aqueducts in the city.

Middle Ages

At the summit of this hill, the French king Clovis I founded in the 5th century, the monastery of the Holy Apostles to Paris. The Holy Genevieve of Paris used on a particular path, the rue de la montagne Sainte -Geneviève, climb up on the hill. Soon after, the monastery was renamed the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève. Clovis and St. Genevieve were buried there.

Modern Times

Today, the dominant building is on the Montagne Sainte -Geneviève, the Panthéon in 1790 completed. This building was the church of the Abbey of Saint Genoveva by the French king Louis XV. commissioned to redeem a vow: ill he had vowed, the Genoveva from Paris to erect a new church if he would recover.

The Montagne Sainte -Geneviève is part of the University of the Latin Quarter. There are there, in part, on the previous Klostergund, a number of major educational and research institutions.

Educational and research institutions

• The Sorbonne, University of Paris head office,
• The Collège de France,
• The École normale supérieure,
• The Institut Curie,
• The Lycée Henry IV,
• The Lycée Louis -le- Grand,
• Lycée Saint- Louis,
• The former Faculty of Law,
• The former École polytechnique,

48.8463888888892.345833333333361Koordinaten: 48 ° 51 ' N, 2 ° 21 ' E

• Geography (Paris)
• 5th Arrondissement (Paris)