With photos taken in the 19th and 20th centuries in the public domain, and thanks to the re:photos project, which compares places around the world before and after through photography, Paris Secret has compiled a list of Parisian monuments through the ages!
Les Halles, 1865 – 2019:
Through the ages, the Halles district has remained teeming with life and the commercial epicenter of the capital. In 1865, Les Halles centrales de Paris, designed by architect Baltard, set the pace for Parisian life. Some 150 years later, the district has been transformed into Châtelet-Les Halles, and has lost none of its lively character. Les Halles has disappeared, as have the buildings in the foreground of the Saint-Eustache church shown in the 1865 photograph. In their place, the Westfield Forum des Halles shopping center and the Nelson Mandela Garden.
Avenue de l’Opéra, 1877 – 2019 :
Quai de la Râpée, 1910 – 2017:
The Seine from the Invalides, 1900 – 2019:
Esplanade du Trocadéro, 1900 – 2019:
The Trocadéro esplanade has changed a lot in the space of a century. Here, a historic vestige of the capital’s industrial era: the Palais du Trocadéro. Built for the 1878 Universal Exhibition, it housed a 4600-seat auditorium, as well as museums. Gradually, its Moorish and neo-Byzantine architecture, as well as the hall’s poor acoustics, led to its destruction in the 1930s. It was replaced by the present-day Palais de Chaillot in 1937, to coincide with that year’s Universal Exhibition.
Pont Saint-Michel, 1859 – 2016 :
Rue de Chazelles, 1884 – 2019:
No, you’re not dreaming. In this photograph from 1884, it’s the Statue of Liberty herself you see towering over the Parisian landscape. Indeed, Auguste Bartholdi’s iconic sculpture was built in Paris, in Gustave Eiffel’s workshops at 25 rue de Chazelles, in the 17th arrondissement. While the street may look like any other Parisian residential thoroughfare today, it is the history of Franco-American friendship that was written here.
Le Jardin des Tuileries, 1919 – 2017:
Théâtre du Châtelet, 1900 – 2016: