ABSTRACT
The guiding spirit of every age is crystallized in its monuments – from the Sainte-
Chapelle to the Rue de Rivoli. But this splendid heritage was set in the midst of a
thoroughly disorganized town, the monuments surrounded and isolated by a tangle
of streets. The herculean efforts of Georges-Eugène Haussmann (1809-91), Préfet
de la Seine under Napoleon III, drastically altered this situation. It was his desire
to provide a splendid framework for the great tradition preserved in Paris.
