Île à la Gourdaine

Coordinates: 48°51′27″N 2°20′25″E / 48.857508°N 2.340345°E / 48.857508; 2.340345
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48°51′27″N 2°20′25″E / 48.857508°N 2.340345°E / 48.857508; 2.340345

Left hand panel (1380) the Île à la Gourdaine shown as “Île du Patriarche ou aux Bureaux.” Right hand panel (1754) the islets subsumed under the place Dauphine
Map of Paris c.1560 showing the Île Gourdaine and the Île des Juifs (both unlabelled)
German map from the 1570s showing the “Île de Bucy” with the watermill nearby.
Paris in 1594

Île à la Gourdaine (or Îlot de la Gourdaine) is a former eyot (islet) in the river Seine in central Paris. It was built over in 1607 to create the current Place Dauphine.[1][2]: 171 

Location[edit]

The island lay immediately downstream (west) of the Île de la Cité and immediately north of the Île aux Juifs.[1][2]: 171  Historically there were many more islands in Paris than the two that remain today, the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis. In medieval times there were ten low lying, sandy islands that were frequently flooded.[3][2]: 167 

Name[edit]

One suggested origin of the name ‘gourdaine’ is that the term means ferry or skiff, because of the ferries that were used to approach the island.[4] Another suggested etymology is that the name means ‘difficult to approach’.[5] A third explanation of the name is that “gourdain” was the name of the watermill which can be seen close by the island on early maps.[6]

Some records suggest that the island was known as “île du-Pasteur-aux-vaches” (“cowherd island”), “île de Bucy”,[note 1] or “île au Moulin-Buci” (“Buci”s mill island”).[9] However Jaillot maintained that these names referred to a different island entirely.[10] Indeed different historians maintained that their predecessors had confused the names of the various islands, so that which name belonged to which island at which time is far from clear.[11][12][13]

It is possible that the island was also known as “Île du Patriarche” because, supposedly, Jacques de Molay was executed there in 1314.[6] Most sources however locate the place of de Molay’s execution as the Île aux Juifs, the island immediately to the south of the Île à la Gourdaine.[14][9]

History[edit]

The islands in the Seine were used as pasturage for animals, and they were covered in grass, reeds and willow trees.[15][12] They belonged to the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.[16] On 28 April 1471 the rights to income from the island were assigned to the parish of Saint-Sulpice, Paris.[12]

Some historians locate a watermill on the island though it appears on maps as a separate structure. The island may have taken its name from the mill, or the mill from the island.[16] The income from this mill was used for the maintenance of the building of Saint-Eustache.[12][11] The mill was transferred to the use of the Monnaie de Paris either by Henry II[12][11] or by Francis II[16] under fr:Guillaume de Marillac after his associate Aubin Olivier devised a method of using a mill to strike coins.[17][11]

In the medieval period the island was a haunt of night-time prostitutes who plied their trade beneath the willow trees. Paul Lacroix suggested that the name of the island derived from the term “goudine”, “gourgandine” or “gordane”, meaning “prostitute.”[18]

Building the Pont Neuf[edit]

When work began on building the Pont Neuf in 1578, the watermill (“moulin de la Monnaie”) was demolished and two quays were built out from the Île de la Cité onto the Île à la Gourdaine and its neighbouring islets. Building work on the quays started in 1580 and after interruptions caused by political unrest, it was not completed until 1611.[16][12][19]

In 1607 king Henry IV granted the area within the new quays to fr: Achille de Harlay, giving him responsibility for developing it according to a masterplan that provided for streets and houses. The Place du Dauphin and the streets west of the Rue de Harlay were part of this development.[16][12]

A plinth was built on part of the Île à la Gourdine, and an equestrian statue of Henry IV was mounted on top of it. The western extremity of the island was incorporated into an extended spit of low-lying land that was originally built on but later became the Square du Vert-Galant.[20]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Bucy was the name of a family who included fr: Simon de Buci, counsellor to Philip VI of France and first President of the Parlement of Paris.[7] and Simon Matifas de Bucy, bishop of Paris (d.1304)[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Square du Vert-Galant". hmbd.org. The Historical Marker Database. December 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Revue des deux mondes Volume 72. Paris: Au Bureau de la Revue des deux mondes. 1867. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  3. ^ Lavallée, Théophile (1857). Histoire de Paris, depuis le temps des Gaulois jusqu'à nos jours. Paris: Michel Lévy frères. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  4. ^ Lacroix, Paul (1856). Revue universelle des arts Volume 3. Brussels: Imprimerie Labroue et Cie. pp. 209–10. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  5. ^ Robert, J-B. (1864). Origines de Paris et de toutes les communes, hameaux, châteaux, etc. des départements de Seine et Seine-et-Oise. Paris: Dumoulin. p. 171. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  6. ^ a b Heuzey, Ferdinand (1864). Curiosités de la cité de Paris histoire étymologique de ses rues nouvelles, anciennes ou suprimées. Paris: Dentu. p. 196. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  7. ^ Aubert, Félix (1913). "Un grand magistrat du XIVe siècle: Simon de Bucy". Revue des Études Historiques: 550ff.
  8. ^ de Guilhermy, Ferdinand; Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène Emmanuel (1856). Description de Notre-Dame, cathédrale de Paris. Paris: Librairie d’Architecture de Bance. p. 117. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  9. ^ a b Du Camp, Maxime (1869). Paris ses organes, ses fonctions et sa vie : dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle · Volume 1. Paris: Hachette. p. 373. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  10. ^ Géraud, P.H.J.F. (1837). Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel, d'après des documents originaux, et notamment d'après un manuscrit contenant Le Role de la Taille ... 1292. Paris: Imprimerie de Crapelet. p. 402. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  11. ^ a b c d Jaillot (1775). Recherches critiques, historiques et topographiques sur la Ville de Paris Volume 1. Paris: Chez l’Auteur. pp. 185–6. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Lacroix de Marlès, Jean (1837). Paris ancien et moderne, ou histoire de France ; divisee en douze periodes appliquees aux douze arrondissements de Paris (etc.). Paris: Parent-Desbarres. p. 268. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  13. ^ Tarver, J.C. (1837). Le caméléon, ou, Recueil mensuel de morceaux de littérature, sciences, beaux arts, histoire, géographie, voyage, etc Volume 1. London: H. Hooper. p. 137. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  14. ^ Dumas, Alxandre (1841). The Progress of Democracy Illustrated in the History of Gaul and France · Volume 20. New York: J. & H. G. Langly. p. 314. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  15. ^ Vallot, Joseph (1884). Essai sur la flore du pavé de Paris limité aux boulevards extérieurs. Paris: J. Lechevalier. p. 10. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  16. ^ a b c d e de Saint-Victor, J.B. (1822). TABLEAU HISTORIQUE ET PITTORESQUE DE PARIS, DEPUIS LES GAULOIS JUSQU'À NOS JOURS. Paris: IMPRIMERIE DE COSSON. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  17. ^ "L'île de la Gourdaine". histoires-de-paris.fr. December 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  18. ^ Dufour, Pierre (1853). Histoire de la prostitution chez tous les peuples du mond. Depuis l'antiquite jusqu'a nos jours Volume 4. Brussels: Perichon. p. 79. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  19. ^ de Lasteyrie, Robert (1882). Documents inédits sur la construction du Pont-Neuf. Paris: Soc. de l'hist. de Paris. pp. 31–32. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  20. ^ da Costa Meyer, Esther (2022). Dividing Paris Urban Renewal and Social Inequality, 1852–1870. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780691162805. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
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