The Bastille

In the United States we celebrate our Independence day on July 4.  Here in France, there is a similar holiday celebrated on July 14, which is called Bastille day.  The French did not declare independence from another country like the American colonists did.  However, the success of the Ameican revolution helped inspire French citizens to overthrow the monarchy that then ruled France.  At the time of the French Revolution the King was Louis XVI and the Queen was Marie Antoinette.  The royal court included thousands of their family and friends, all of whom lived in extreme luxury, supported by the tax dollars of the ordinary citizens in France. (Remember the pictures of Versailles?)

 If a citizen did anything to anger the king, all the king had to do was issue a "writ" and that person would be imprisoned.  However, even in prison treatment was not equal between rich and poor.  Rich prisoners could by a spacious cell and even host dinner parties!  The poor were thrown into prisons like the Bastille, which was dark, damp, and disgusting.  Prisoners often drowned when the Seine River overflowed and flooded the building.  In 1789 the prison did not hold many prisoners, but it was being used to store weapons and ammunition for the king's army.  The citizens of France stormed the Bastille on July 14, 1789, freeing the prisoners and seizing the weapons.  This is considered to be the start of the French revolution.  Three months later they marched on Versailles, capturing the king and queen.

The prison was torn down in 1792.  The stones from it were recycled to build one of the many bridges that cross the Seine River.  The Colonne de Juillet stands where the Bastille once stood, although it is not a monument to the Bastille, but to French citizens who lost their lives in a later uprising.  Perhaps the French citizens don't want a reminder of such a horrible place.