Haussmann's renovation of Paris
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Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works programme commissioned by French Emperor Napoleon III and directed by his prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval neighbourhoods that were deemed overcrowded and unhealthy by officials at the time; the building of wide avenues; new parks and squares; the annexation of the suburbs surrounding Paris; and the construction of new sewers, fountains and aqueducts. Haussmann's work was met with fierce opposition, and he was finally dismissed by Napoleon III in 1870; but work on his projects continued until 1927. The street plan and distinctive appearance of the centre of Paris today are largely the result of Haussmann's renovation.
Napoleon III instructed Haussmann to bring air and light to the centre of the city, to unify the different neighbourhoods with boulevards, and to make the city more beautiful. The Avenue de l'Opéra, created by Haussmann, painted by Camille Pissarro (1898).
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Prefect of Seine under Napoleon III from 1853 until 1870.
Windows and balconies of a typical Haussmannian building on Rue Soufflot.
The Rue des Marmousets, one of the narrow and dark medieval streets on the Île de la Cité, in the 1850s. The site is near the Hôtel-Dieu (General Hospital on the Île de la Cité).
Napoleon III
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Napoleon III was the first president of France from 1848 to 1852, and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 until he was deposed on 4 September 1870.
Portrait of Napoleon III, 1862
Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland (1778–1846), the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte and father of Napoleon III
Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837), mother of Napoleon III
The lakeside house at Arenenberg, Switzerland, where Louis Napoleon spent much of his youth and exile