ABSTRACT
During the Second Empire, Paris was profoundly remodelled and transformed. The imperial authorities-Napoleon III himself, along with his prefects of the Seine department, Berger and then Haussmann - took the decisions about these changes. Haussmann remained at the post of prefect from 1853 until1870 and both his detractors and his enthusiastic supporters became used to applying his name to describe the urban renovation of the French capital. Major works were undertaken on three occasions during the Second Empire: in 1852, in 1858 and then towards the middle of the 1860s. Each of these campaigns comprised a series of operations, from the opening up of new thoroughfares to the construction of new hospitals, local town halls for the arrondissements of Paris, the creation of parks, market halls and so on. Each campaign constituted a 'network', characterized by a certain autonomy in the way it was financed and by the specific aims underlying the way it evolved over time.l The first campaign, launched in 1852, was primarily intended to develop the Ile de la Cite, opening it up by means of new boulevards, Sebastopol and Strasbourg to the north, the boulevard Saint-Michel heading south and the east-west extension of the rue de Rivoli, parallel to the Seine, on the right bank. The second major campaign was planned from 1858 in preparation for the annexation of the peripheral communes surrounding the old capital - the communes of the 'immediate suburbs' incorporated into the enlarged city in 1860. From this point of view, the second campaign was concerned to facilitate communications between the different quarters inside the city. The main, city-wide 'cross-roads' having been established, this campaign launched new, diagonally oriented thoroughfares, radiating, in the west, from the place de l'Etoile and, in the east, from today's place de la Nation. Cutting across existing
streets, these new diagonals created a series of secondary etoiles or circuses. The third campaign had similar aims to the second, finishing off a certain number of the operations already begun, particularly in the 'annexed' suburban communes, but also in the centre of the city, notably with the creation of the boulevard Saint-Germain on the left bank.2
