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Profile
Montmartre Apt - 18 rue Simart
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Hotel Location:
18 rue Simart
Paris,
France
Contact Us
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Sacré-coeur
A few minutes walk toward the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur will bring you to the top of Montmartre hill, ideal spot for sunset over Paris. This basilica erected from 1876 to 1919 is a huge white piece of pastry of Romano-byzantine architecture built on eighty-three pillars driven into the hill because of the gypsum quarries under the hill exploited since Roman times onward. This labyrinth of galleries were both an extraordinary field of research for Cuvier, the father of paleonthology and a shelter for hermits and outlaws.
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Built high above the rest of Paris, Montmartre gets its name from its history of Roman occupation and Christian martyrdom, and a series of etymological coincidences. A site of worship since before the arrival of the Druids, the hilltop was once home to an altar dedicated to Mercury and a shrine in honor of Mars. At different points in the Roman era, it was referred to as Mons Mercurii or Mons Martis. The area suffered from a confused identity until Bishop Dionysus, now known as St. Denis, introduced Christianity to the Gauls in the late 3rd Century. Unimpressed, the Romans eschewed constructive criticism and cut off his head.
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Place du Tertre
You can take a break at one of the many bistrot terraces place du Tertre. While walking in the area, resist the invitation of the many portrait painters operating on the square, once seated they will come to you anyway. Take a stroll around this charming district through its tiny streets reminding you that it used to be a village and almost a republic of its own during the Commune of Montmartre in 1871. At number 21 is the Centre of the Free Commune of Montmartre, self declared in 1920 by Jules Depaquit. The free-thinking spirit is still alive and truly reflected by a community FM radio maintaining the anarchist utopias alive.
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Along with the Montagne Ste Geneviève in the 5th district, Montmartre is one of the two Parisian hills and few Parisian neighborhoods Baron Haussmann left intact when he redesigned the city and its environs. A rural area outside the city limits until the 20th century, the butte used to be covered with vineyards, wheat fields, windmills and gypsum mines.
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Its picturesque beauty and low rents attracted notable bohemians like Toulouse-Lautrec and Eric Satie, as well as performers and impresarios like Aristide Bruant. Toulouse-Lautrec, in particular, immortalized Montmartre through his paintings of life in disreputable nightspots like the Bal du Moulin Rouge. On the Bd de Clichy, 'The Moulin Rouge' is the birthplace of French-cancan, still haunted by the shadow of 'La Goulue', Toulouse-Lautrec's favourite model .
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Place des Abesses
The heart of Montmartre. The church St Jean de Montmartre consecrated in 1904 was the very first religious building made of reinforced concrete. Specialists are still amazed by the audacity of its reinforcement and the fineness of its pilars. Also, don't miss one of the only two remaining Metro glass porches designed by the famous Art-deco sculptor Hector Guimard.
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* Notice: All information provided on this site was correct at time of publishing, but subject to change at the hotel. Photos and pictures do not necessarily correspond to the text descriptions next to them.
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