6th Arrondissement of Paris - History

History

The current 6th arrondissement, dominated by the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés-founded in the 6th century- was the heart of the Catholic Church power in Paris for century, hosting many religious institutions.

In 1612, Queen Marie de Médicis bought an estate in the district and commissioned architect Salomon de Brosse to transform it into the outstanding Luxembourg Palace surrounded by extensive royal gardens. The new Palace turned the neighborhood into a fashionable district for French nobility.

Since the 1950s, the arrondissement, with its many higher education institutions, world famous cafés (Café de Flore, Les Deux Magots, La Palette etc.) and publishing houses (Gallimard, Julliard, Grasset etc.) has been the home of much of the major post-war intellectual and literary movements and some of most influential in history such as surrealism, existentialism and modern feminism.

Read more about this topic:  6th Arrondissement Of Paris

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.
    Willa Cather (1876–1947)

    The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.
    Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)