Wall of Philip II Augustus

The walls were fortified from 1190 to 1213, built under the command of Philip Augustus whom also contributed to the cost of building the wall. Any incoming attack from France's main military threat, the English, would arrive from the western end of the Seine and so the Louvre fortress was placed just outside the western limit of the wall. The building of the wall also had the intention to discourage further urban expansion and to stimulate the usage of undeveloped land within the walls. This area of land also had the potential to sustain a growing food supply to sustain the population in the event of a siege. The wall was however never militarily put to the test.[1]

Representation of the Tour de Nesle by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, 1856.

Despite the construction during the 14th century of Charles V's wall encircling Philip Augustus' wall on the Right Bank, the latter wall was not demolished. On the Right Bank, Charles' wall in effect left the earlier wall in disuse and redundant. In 1434, it was still considered strong enough and thick enough for a cart to be driven on top.

However, Charles V's wall did not extend to the Left Bank, so the Philip Augustus' old wall was strengthened by:

• Excavating a large ditch in front of the wall and using the spoil behind the wall to reinforce it;
• Digging a back-ditch which merged with the main one on some sections of the wall;
• Flooding those parts of the ditch that were at the same level as the Seine. Flood water was kept in the ditches by means of locks on the river banks;
• Removal of the battlements on the towers and replacing them with conical roofs;
• Strengthening of the gates with a barbican, a bridge/drawbridge[2] and a portcullis;
• A chemin de ronde was built along some sections of the wall for easier movement of artillery.

In 1533, Francis I demolished the Right Bank gates and authorised the leasing of the land enclosed by the wall without authorising the demolition of the wall itself. From the second half of the 16th century, these lands were sold to individuals, and often the cause of the dismantling of large sections of the wall.

The Left Bank wall followed the same path under Henry IV. In 1590, he preferred digging ditches beyond the city outskirts to once again modernising the wall. The ditches near the Seine were used as open sewers and caused health problems so in the 17th century they were filled and replaced by covered galleries. The last remaining gates, unsuited to ever-increasing traffic, were razed in the 1680s when the wall became completely invisible.

The wall was between six and eight metres high, including the parapet, about three meters thick at the base. It was made from two walls of large ashlar-faced limestone blocks, reinforced with an infill of rough-hewn stone rubble and mortar. The wall was topped with a crenellated two-metre wide chemin de ronde.

Portion of curtain existing in rue Clovis, showing the ashlar facing and rubble core construction.

The wall had 77 semi-circular towers (flat and integrated into the curtain wall on the town side) at 60-metre intervals.[3] Each stood 15 metres high, with a six-metre diameter, and one-metre thick walls. The bases were vaulted but the higher floors were wooden planked.

Four huge bastion towers – 25 metres high with a ten-metre diameter – stood at the points where the wall met the Seine. Their purpose was to defend the city against assault from the river; heavy chains could be stretched across the river to prevent access.

On the west side these were:

• The Tour du coin, Right Bank, near the Louvre (Quai François Mitterrand)
• The Tour de Nesle, Left Bank (Quai de Conti)

On the east side:

• The Tour Barbeau, Right Bank (Quai Célestins)
• La Tournelle, Left Bank (Quai de la Tournelle)

Fifteen large gates opened onto the roads leading to France's main cities. At first, they were identical: an ogival gate closed with two wooden panels set into two 15-metre high and eight-metre diameter towers. Inside the gates two portcullis completed the construction.

Simple posterns – piercing the wall – were added to improve traffic flow. They could be walled up in times of danger (as could the less used or less defensible gates). However, some posterns were intended to be defended.

Initially, there were only five gates on the Left Bank:

• Porte Saint-Germain (renamed Porte de Buci in 1352) (rue Saint-André-des-Arts, near the rue Dauphine)
• Porte Gibard, Porte d'Enfer, or Porte Saint-Michel (at the corner of boulevard Saint-Michel and rue Monsieur-le-Prince)
• Porte Saint-Jacques (rue Saint-Jacques heading south towards Chartres and Orléans, at the corner of the rue Soufflot)
• Porte Bordet or Porte Bordelles, or Porte Saint-Marcel (rue Descartes, near the rue Thouin)
• Porte Saint-Victor heading east (rue des Écoles, near the rue du Cardinal-Lemoine)

In 1420, a new gate was built near Saint-Germain-des-Prés: Porte des Cordeliers (at the corner of the rue Monsieur-le-Prince and the rue Dupuytren). It was sometimes called Porte de Buci, named after an older gate further north.

Finally, at the end of the 13th century, a postern was built east of the Porte Saint-Jacques, the Porte Papale ("Pope's gate") or Porte Sainte-Geneviève at the end of the current rue d'Ulm.

Map of Sebastian Münster (1572). In blue, the walls of Philip Augustus, dubbed on the Right Bank by the wall of Charles V

At first, there were six gates on the Right Bank:

• Porte Saint-Honoré (rue Saint-Honoré, at the level of the rue de l'Oratoire)
• Porte Montmartre (rue Montmartre, near the rue Étienne-Marcel)
• Porte Saint-Denis or Porte aux Peintres (rue Saint-Denis, at the junction of the rue de Turbigo and the impasse des Peintres). It should not be confused with the Porte Saint-Denis in Charles V's wall, rebuilt under Louis XIV and still extant today.
• Porte Saint-Martin (rue Saint-Martin, near the rue du Grenier-Saint-Lazare). It should not be confused with the Porte Saint-Martin of the wall of Charles V, rebuilt under Louis XIV and also still extant today.
• Porte Saint-Antoine, or Porte Baudet, or Porte Baudoyer (rue Saint-Antoine, at the level of the rue de Sévigné)
• Porte du Louvre between the fortress of Louvre and the Tour du coin, linking the wall to the Seine.

Two posterns were built between the Porte Saint-Antoine and the Seine, as well as the Barbette postern (rue Vieille-du-Temple, between the rue des Blancs-Manteaux and the rue des Francs-Bourgeois)

During the 13th century, other posterns were added:

• Poterne Coquillière (rue Coquillière, near the rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau)
• Poterne d'Artois (rue Montorgueil)
• Poterne Beaubourg.

The last gate was added in 1280:

• Porte du Temple (rue du Temple, between the rue de Braque and the rue Rambuteau)