Île de la Cité

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Île de la Cité as seen from the Pont des Arts shortly before sunrise
Notre Dame de Paris on Île de la Cité from upstream (the east)

The Île de la Cité (French pronunciation: ​[il də la site]) is one of two remaining natural islands in the Seine within the city of Paris (the other being the Île Saint-Louis).[1] It is the centre of Paris and the location where the medieval city was refounded.



Remains of a defensive Roman wall beneath the parvis facing Notre Dame de Paris
The Île de la Cité in the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, circa 1410





The Pont Neuf[edit]

Main article: Pont Neuf

The Pont Neuf, the "new bridge" that is now the oldest bridge in Paris, was completed by Henry IV, who inaugurated it in 1607. The bronze equestrian statue of Henry IV was commissioned from Giambologna under the orders of Marie de Medici, Henry's widow and Regent of France, in 1614. After his death, Giambologna's assistant Pietro Tacca completed the statue, which was erected on its pedestal by Pietro Francavilla in 1618. It was destroyed in 1792 during the French Revolution, but was remade from surviving casts in 1818. The sculpture originally rose from the river on its own foundations, abutting the bridge; since then, the natural sandbar building of a mid-river island, aided by stone-faced embankments called quais, has extended the island, which is planted as the teardrop-shaped Parc Vert Galant in honour of Henry IV, the "Green Gallant" King.

The Place Dauphine[edit]

The Place Dauphine, laid out in 1609 while the Place des Vosges was still under construction and named for the Dauphin of France, the future Louis XIII,[4] was among the earliest city-planning projects of Henry IV. The space, a rectangle with two canted ends, was made over to Achille du Harlay to construct thirty-two houses of regular plan. It is approached through a kind of gateway centred on the "downstream" end, formed by paired pavilions facing the equestrian statue of Henry IV on the far side of the Pont Neuf. They are built of brick with limestone quoins supported on arcaded stone ground floors and capped by steep slate roofs with dormers, very like the contemporaneous facades of Place des Vosges. Few visitors penetrate Place Dauphine, which lies behind them, and where all the other buildings have been raised in height, given new facades, rebuilt, or replaced with heightened pastiches of the originals. The former enclosing east side was swept away to open the view to the monumental white marble Second Empire Palais de Justice (built 1857–68), like a glazed colonnade[5] centered on the Place Dauphine, the remains of which now form a kind of forecourt to it.[6]

The Île de la Cité seen from the west, downstream


Three medieval buildings remain on the Île de la Cité (east to west):

Notre Dame de Paris, western facade, as seen from the quai de Montebello
Île de la Cité 1609

The oldest remaining residential quarter is the Ancien Cloître. Baron Haussmann demolished some of the network of narrow streets, but was dismissed in 1869 before the entire quarter was lost.

Old engraved maps of Paris show how, when the Pont Neuf was built, it grazed the downstream tip, the "stern" of the island-ship. Since then, the natural sandbar building of a mid-river island, aided by stone-faced embankments called quais, has extended the island, which is planted as the small Vert Galant park ("square du Vert-Galant"), named for Henry IV of France, the "Green Gallant" king whose statue stands near the center of the bridge. It retains the original low-lying riverside level of the island. Nearby, a discreet plaque (illustration below) commemorates the spot where Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burnt at the stake, 18 March 1314. The upstream tip of the island is the site of the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, a memorial to the 200,000 French citizens who were deported to German labour camps during the Second World War.


The Île de la Cité is connected to the rest of Paris by bridges to both banks of the river and to the Île Saint-Louis. The oldest surviving bridge is the Pont Neuf ('New Bridge'), which lies at the western end of the island.

Plaque commemorating the burning of Jacques de Molay

The island has one Paris Métro station, Cité; and the RER station Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame on the Left Bank has an exit in the square in front of the Cathedral.

Notes and references[edit]

  1. ^ The Île aux Cygnes is artificial.
  2. ^ Floods destroyed the bridge at intervals, the last houses being removed in 1809, and the present bridge was constructed in 1857. (Photos et historique: Le pont Saint-Michel).
  3. ^ The present bridge dates from 1853, with the central arches replaced by an iron span in 1967. (Photos et historique: Le pont Notre Dame).
  4. ^ Place is feminine, not dauphin
  5. ^ The architects were Joseph-Louis Duc and Honoré Daumet.Palais de Justice
  6. ^ La Place Dauphine.


  • de Brunhoff, Jacques (1987). La place Dauphine et l'île de la Cité (in French). Lyon. ISBN 2904638997. 

External links[edit]

Coordinates: 48°51′17″N 2°20′51″E﻿ / ﻿48.85472°N 2.34750°E﻿ / 48.85472; 2.34750