Place de la Bastille
The prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.
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You stand where an eight-towered fortress with 24-metre walls once loomed. Within months, Pierre-François Palloy razed it — then carved souvenir models from its own stones to ship to the provinces.
What to look for
- Beside Boulevard Henri IV, the relocated foundation stones — nearly the only physical piece of the fortress left.
- The July Column at the centre marks the 1830 uprising, not the 1789 storming its name conjures.
- Rue Saint-Antoine, which once crossed the fortress on four sets of drawbridges, still feeds the square.
Surface from the Bastille Métro onto the square — the same 1899 Métro excavations uncovered the Liberté Tower's foundations.
Place de la Bastille is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Arc de TriompheNapoleon ordered it after Austerlitz in 1806; twelve avenues still radiate from the star-shaped square around it.