The Latin Quarter: Eight Centuries of the Same Question

The open square at the western end of the Sorbonne complex, framing the Chapelle de la Sorbonne. Site of the Collège de la Sorbonne, founded twelve fifty-three by Robert de Sorbon, confirmed by royal letters of Louis the Ninth in twelve fifty-seven. Original buildings on Rue Coupe-Gueule, today Rue de la Sorbonne. Suppressed by Revolutionary decree of fifth of April seventeen ninety-two; rebuilt by Henri-Paul Nénot eighteen eighty-nine to nineteen oh one. Gathering point for students before the third of May nineteen sixty-eight Sorbonne closure.

The Sorbonne chapel, designed by Jacques Lemercier and built sixteen thirty-five to sixteen forty-two on the commission of Cardinal Richelieu. Greek-cross plan, dome modelled on Italian precedent, early Jesuit-influenced classical baroque in Paris. Richelieu's tomb, sculpted by François Girardon, installed in the centre of the choir at the end of the seventeenth century. Survived the Revolution; today deconsecrated, used for exhibitions and university ceremonies.

Founded fifteen thirty by royal charter of François the First as the Collège royal, at the urging of the humanist Guillaume Budé. Built to teach subjects the Sorbonne refused: Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Latin literature, mathematics. Renamed Collège de France in eighteen seventy. Eleven place Marcelin-Berthelot, fifth arrondissement. Free public lectures, no enrolment, no degrees awarded. Lecturers have included Henri Bergson, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Pierre Boulez.

On the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, immediately east of the Panthéon. Construction began fourteen ninety-four; completed sixteen twenty-four. Houses the surviving fragment of Saint Geneviève's tomb. Blaise Pascal, sixteen twenty-three to sixteen sixty-two, is buried near the Chapelle de la Vierge. Jean Racine, sixteen thirty-nine to sixteen ninety-nine, was transferred here from the abbey of Port-Royal in seventeen eleven. Houses the only surviving rood screen, the jubé, in Paris, created circa fifteen thirty to fifteen forty-five; figurative sculptures by Pierre Biard the Elder.

Commissioned by Louis the Fifteenth in seventeen forty-four in fulfilment of a vow during illness. Designed by Jacques-Germain Soufflot beginning seventeen fifty-five. Constructed seventeen fifty-eight to seventeen ninety. Soufflot died seventeen eighty, ten years before completion under Jean-Baptiste Rondelet. Originally consecrated as the Église Sainte-Geneviève. Converted to a secular national mausoleum by decree of the National Constituent Assembly on the fourth of April seventeen ninety-one. Voltaire transferred eleven July seventeen ninety-one; Rousseau eleven October seventeen ninety-four; Hugo eighteen eighty-five; Zola nineteen oh eight; Marie Curie nineteen ninety-five; Simone Veil twenty eighteen; Joséphine Baker twenty twenty-one; Missak and Mélinée Manouchian twenty twenty-four. Foucault's Pendulum installed by Léon Foucault in eighteen fifty-one.

The narrow rue off Place Edmond-Rostand where the first barricade of the Night of the Barricades, the nuit du dix au onze mai, was erected at twenty-one fifteen on the tenth of May nineteen sixty-eight. Built from cars, advertising panels, tree fences, and paving stones torn from the Latin Quarter street surface. Approximately sixty barricades by morning across the quarter. Police clearance from oh two fifteen onwards. The Sorbonne had been closed by Jean Roche, rector of the academy of Paris, on the third of May; reopened by Prime Minister Georges Pompidou on the thirteenth of May and immediately reoccupied; emptied of occupiers on the sixteenth of June.

The interior courtyard at the heart of the Nénot eighteen eighty-nine to nineteen oh one complex. Bounded on the north by the Chapelle de la Sorbonne, on the south by the grand amphitheatre, on the east by the library wing, and on the west by Rue de la Sorbonne. The synthesis stop. The convergence of the seven institutional answers the listener has walked: the Sorbonne, the chapel, the Collège de France, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, the Panthéon, the May nineteen sixty-eight barricade site, and the courtyard itself. Where the question is left open. Public access typically restricted; the audio anchors at the entrance archway from the Place de la Sorbonne.