3-039-243 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fighting in Paris: burning of the Hotel de Ville, 1871. '...upon the line of retreat a fire was kindled at the corner of the Place du Louvre and at the corner of the Rue St. Martin, where some new houses have been utterly destroyed. The Avenue Victoria, which leads to the Hotel de Ville, was also set on fire...an act doubtless intended by the Red Republican leaders to revenge their defeat and to express their detestation of monarchy. The Palais Royal, the Palais de Justice, the offices of the Council of State and Legion of Honour were destroyed, wholly or partially, for the same reason...These architectural monuments of Royal, or Imperial, or ecclesiastical history were to be sacrificed to the fanatical rage of the levelling sect. But it is probable that the other public and private buildings actually destroyed were set on fire rather to create as much confusion as possible, and to impede the advance of the troops, so that the Communists might gain time to prepare for their last stubborn resistance in the east and north-east of Paris, and that the leaders might have a chance of escape. The main thoroughfares of the city were to be barred not only by barricades, but by masses of fire'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.