Trayle

The Bastille  had originally been built as a medieval fortress during the hundred years' war between 1370 and 1383. The four and a half-story building located at the eastern main entrance to medieval Paris at the Porte St. Antoine (overlooking the Faubourg St.Antoine of the Marais quarter, a former swamp) had eight towers with a total heigth of app. 23,5 m and outer stone walls with a thickness of 4 - 5 m at the base. Until the 17th century it was both used as a castle and for the storage of the royal treasure.

In the second half of the 17th century, the cardinal Richelieu converted the royal fortress into a state prison for the upper class - mainly people who committed high treason or some other kind of offense against the king or the state.

On the morning of July 14th, 1789, a group formed of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to the Invalides to steal some weapons. The mob stole 28,000 riffles there, however no powder was to be found. The crowd knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King's absolute and arbitrary power. So they decided to attack it.

The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris, where the Bastille prison stood until the 'Storming of the Bastille' and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution; no vestige of it remains.

The Colonne de Juillet dominates la Place de la Bastille. It marks the site of the prison known as the Bastille which was stormed by the Mob in 1789 at the start of the French Revolution. In the subway station beneath the square, stones from the Bastille's foundation can still be seen. This square is also home to the Opéra Bastille completed in 1990.

Travellers planning upon visiting Paris and looking for more history about the Bastille should check here for more information.  Bastille hotels worth looking into include Classics hotel Bastille and the Holiday Inn Paris Bastille.