north side was begun ca. 1246/47 by Jean de Chelles, who also began the south in
1257/58 but was shortly succeeded by Pierre de Montreuil. The elaborate tracery screens
and enormous rose windows, the latter in imitation of the rose of the west façade, are
clearly in the Rayonnant style. Work continued with the addition of lower chapels on the
nave and ultimately around the chevet, as well as with the decoration of the interior by
means of the choir enclosure and the transept interiors late in the 13th and into the 14th
century.
The present church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, dating from ca. 1170, is the sole
surviving 12th-century parish church in Paris. Its three-apse east-end plan, with a tower
over the south bay before the apse, is close to the plan of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre but
lacks the transept. The church was founded in the 6th century, and its plan type is
representative of the conservative tradition found in Paris under Louis VII. In spite of its
old-fashioned look, the details indicate that it is contemporary with the upper level of the
east end of the cathedral. Construction of Saint-Julien dragged on slowly; the upper parts
of the east end may not have been completed before ca. 1210, and construction was
finally abandoned ca. 1250. The present façade wall dates from the mid-17th century.
Other sites known to have been founded in the Merovingian period were rebuilt under
Louis VI and Louis VII, marking the reestablished prosperity of the city. Further
indications of conditions in the city are provided by the transfer of the Grève market to
Les Champeaux, approximately on the site of Les Halles, and the concession of the Grève
port to the newly established “Marchands de l’Eau” in 1141. Most scholars of Paris
believe that the wall on the north bank was rebuilt farther out, perhaps in the first half of
the 12th century, to protect the city’s commerce; but no archaeological evidence has been
found. But the most famous indication of conditions on the Cité is the petition by the
monks of Saint-Barthélémy/Saint-Magloire to exchange properties with the king. The
Cité, they alleged, was too crowded for the monks to live in peace. Thus, in 1138, they
moved to the chapel of Saint-Georges beside the Rue Saint-Denis and began to build their
new convent, dedicated to St. Magloire. Their bucolic peace, however, was to be short-
lived.
If the ages of Louis VI and Louis VII were devoted largely to the rebuilding of
monuments, which would include the old royal palace on the Cité (now the Palais de
Justice), then the age of Philip Augustus marks the beginning of what we might term
civic projects. Under Philip, Paris truly came into its own as the capital of a strong
monarchy and the center of a flourishing French civilization. In 1183, Philip ordered the
reconstruction of the great market center, later known as Les Halles, to support the
growing mercantile community. Some years later, he began the task of paving the city’s
more important streets and squares. When he left on crusade in 1190, Philip underscored
the importance of the capital by naming six bourgeois of Paris to take charge of royal
finances, auditing accounts at the Temple. At about the same time, he ordered the
fortification of the city by the construction of walls regularly punctuated by defensive
towers. More than three miles of new city walls encircled the sprawling suburbs to the
north and the old Roman areas to the south. Protected by the new fortress, the Louvre, to
the west and by fortified bridge heads within, the town, now encompassing more than
620 acres, was for the first time unified. The left bank was still underpopulated, and
grapes could still be grown on the slopes almost to the Seine. Still, this side of the city
was rapidly changing, as the schools of Saint-Victor and the nucleus of the university
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