Montmartre
[4] Near the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, during the Belle Époque, many artists lived, worked, or had studios in or around Montmartre, including Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Suzanne Valadon, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro and Vincent van Gogh.
According to Hilduin, Denis collected his head and carried it as far as the fontaine Saint-Denis (on modern impasse Girardon), then descended the north slope of the hill, where he died.
"[6] In 1134, King Louis VI purchased the Merovingian chapel and built on the site the church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, still standing.
[6] By the 15th century, the north and northeast slopes of the hill were the site of a village surrounded by vineyards, gardens and orchards of peach and cherry trees.
There were thirteen mills at one time, though by the late nineteenth century only two remained,[6] During the 1590 Siege of Paris, in the last decade of the French Wars of Religion, Henry IV placed his artillery on top of the butte of Montmartre to fire down into the city.
That year, under the revolutionary government of the National Constituent Assembly, it became the commune of Montmartre, with its town hall located on place du Tertre, site of the former abbey.
The construction of the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur required making a special foundation that descended 40 metres (130 ft) under the ground to hold the structure in place.
During the Franco-Prussian War, the French army had stored a large number of cannon in a park at the top of the hill, near where the basilica is today.
They were blocked by members of the politically radicalised Paris National Guard, who captured and then killed two French army generals, and installed a revolutionary government that lasted two months.
[11] In 1870, the future French prime minister during World War I, Georges Clemenceau, was appointed mayor of the 18th arrondissement, including Montmartre, by the new government of the Third Republic, and was also elected to the National Assembly.
[12] The Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur was built on Montmartre from 1876 to 1919, financed by public subscription as a gesture of expiation for the suffering of France during the Franco-Prussian War.
Its white dome is a highly visible landmark in the city, and near it artists set up their easels each day amidst the tables and colourful umbrellas of the place du Tertre.
The Moulin Rouge at 94 boulevard de Clichy was founded in 1889 by Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler; it became the birthplace of the French cancan.
[13] Artists who performed in the cabarets of Montmartre included Yvette Guilbert, Marcelle Lender, Aristide Bruant, La Goulue, Georges Guibourg, Mistinguett, Fréhel, Jane Avril, and Damia.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir rented space at 12 rue Cortot in 1876 to paint Bal du moulin de la Galette, showing a dance at Montmartre on a Sunday afternoon.
[15] Artists' associations such as Les Nabis and the Incohérents were formed and individuals including Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Brissaud, Alfred Jarry, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Henri Matisse, André Derain, Suzanne Valadon, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Théophile Steinlen, and African-American expatriates such as Langston Hughes worked in Montmartre[16] and drew some of their inspiration from the area.
Among the last of the neighborhood's bohemian gathering places was R-26, an artistic salon frequented by Josephine Baker, Le Corbusier and Django Reinhardt.
The mansion in the garden at the back is the oldest hotel on Montmartre, and one of its first owners was Claude de la Rose, a 17th-century actor known as Rosimond, who bought it in 1680.
