Here are a few facts you may not know, or may half-know, about Bastille Day — July 14 — and the Bastille uprising itself.
The Bastille was built between 1370 and 1383 as a fortress and was converted to a prison in the 17th century. It was torn down after the events of 1789.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Wikimedia Commons
The spot where the Bastille once stood was occupied first by a guillotine. In 1808, Napoleon commissioned a bronze elephant for the spot, but “only a life-size plaster model was ever made and installed in its center, in 1833,” according to the Paris Metro website. (That still sounds pretty impressive.)
Today in Bastille Square, there’s a 154-foot column called the July Column, but it commemorates a different revolution — that of 1830.
(Jean Louis Zimmermann via Wikimedia Commons)
Jean Louis Zimmermann via Wikimedia Commons
In the Bastille Metro station, you can find a piece of the Bastille and a line on the floor marking off part of the outline.
(Courtesy Paris Metro)
Courtesy Paris Metro
The last governor of the Bastille, Bernard-Rene de Launay, was born inside the Bastille; his father was the previous governor. He was killed by a mob after he was hustled out of the prison.
(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
AP Photo/Thibault Camus
The Marquis de Lafayette, who fought with the colonists during the American Revolution and formed a close bond with George Washington, sent Washington the key to the Bastille. It’s on display in Mount Vernon.
(Photo courtesy George Washington’s Mount Vernon)
Photo courtesy George Washington’s Mount Vernon
It’s probably no surprise that in the U.S., there are serious Bastille Day celebrations in New Orleans and New York. It may come as a bit of a surprise that Milwaukee goes all out for Bastille Day, complete with a re-enactment of the storming of the Bastille, Cajun and zydeco music, as well as Edith Piaf classics, a waiter/waitress race, and a 43-foot Eiffel Tower (above).
(Courtesy Melissa Miller Music Photography)
Courtesy Melissa Miller Music Photography
Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI’s queen, never said the supremely clueless “Let them eat cake” when told the peasants had no bread. For one thing, she was 14 and living in Austria when the phrase was first written. In fact, she once wrote quite the opposite:
“It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The King seems to understand this truth.”
This artwork is by an unknown artist depicting Marie Antoinette as she is taken to the guillotine at the height of the French Revolution October 16, 1793, for the crime of treason.
(AP Photo)
CORRECTS DAY AND YEAR - Fireworks illuminate the Eiffel Tower in Paris during Bastille Day celebrations late Tuesday, July 14, 2015. Bastille Day marks the July 14, 1789, storming of the Bastille prison by angry Paris crowds that helped spark the French Revolution. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)(AP/Thibault Camus)
CORRECTS DAY AND YEAR - Fireworks illuminate the Eiffel Tower in Paris during Bastille Day celebrations late Tuesday, July 14, 2015. Bastille Day marks the July 14, 1789, storming of the Bastille prison by angry Paris crowds that helped spark the French Revolution. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)(AP/Thibault Camus)
WASHINGTON — Bastille Day, July 14, marks the turning point in the French Revolution, when a group of roughly 1,000 people took over the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789.
The unrest was set off by the rough economic shape France was in at the time, in part because they spent a lot of money helping the fledgling United States with the American Revolution. The Third Estate (the Catholic clergy comprised the First Estate; the nobility, the Second), a representative body composed of commoners, bore the brunt of a whole bunch of new taxes.
That didn’t go over well.
At the time, there were only seven prisoners in the Bastille and some weapons. Historians say the real significance was that the army didn’t do much to try to quell the uprising. That was a clear sign to King Louis XVI that his grip on power was tenuous.
The revolution went on for years after, with many nobles killed in revolutionary violence. But Bastille Day is considered the birth of the Republic of France.
Here are a few facts you may not know, or may only half-know, about Bastille Day, and the Bastille uprising itself.
Rick Massimo came to WTOP, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child. He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."
