Paris 19th District
Paris 19th district is also known as the Quartier de Buttes-Chaumont, and is mainly delimited by the Parc des Buttes Chaumont and the Parc de la Villette.
It includes the Quartier d’Amérique, Quartier du Combat, Quartier du Pont de Flandre, and Quartier de la Villette.
The QUARTIER D’AMÉRIQUE owes its name to the Carrières d’Amérique, which produced the gypsum and limestones used in the construction of Parisian buildings.
The QUARTIER DU COMBAT was named after the Barrière du Combat du Taureau (Bullfighting Gate), which has left place to the present-day Place du Colonel Fabien. The long-gone Barrière was one of the toll gates of the Wall of the General Farmers where merchants had to pay a customs duty before entering Paris and selling their products. It stood next to a vacant lot where animal fights were once held (hence its name).
The Rotonde de la Villette, on the current Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad, served as headquarters for the fiscal wall’s controllers and receivers, as well as accommodation for guards and horsemen responsible for monitoring the pedestrian crossing and the warehouses of goods.
This superb building is a stone’s throw from the Pont de Flandre, a drawbridge-footbridge that spans the Canal de l’Ourcq, and which gave its name to the QUARTIER DU PONT DE FLANDRE.
The QUARTIER DE LA VILLETTE began as a modest hamlet that formed about 20 centuries ago, near the present-day Rue de Nantes. In 849, the Hospitaller brothers of Saint-Ladre (Saint-Lazare), a hospice that cared for lepers, founded an annex at La Villette. The villagers attached to it worked the vineyards planted by the monks. Located on the heights of Paris, La Villette was renowned for its pure air. However, wealthy Parisians hesitated to settle in a neighbourhood close to a leper colony.
Three toll gates were built in the village during the construction of the General Farmers’ Wall, quickly attracting cafes and entertainment venues nearby.The second phase of development took place in the early 19th century with the creation of a slaughterhouse and the Bassin de la Villette, a vast freight station with a basin and a depot, intended to serve Paris and the northern regions of France.
The local population thus quintupled in a decade after the French Revolution. A constant influx of unskilled labourers, coupled with difficult working conditions and rampant urbanisation, thus provided fertile ground for the revolutionary movements of the 19th century. In 1860, La Villette and part of Belleville merged to form Paris 19th district. The remaining part of Belleville was attached to the 20th district and the Parc des Buttes Chaumont was created.
Paris 19th district retained its industrial and working-class identity until the extensive rehabilitation works carried out in the 1980s, which resulted in the creation of the Parc de la Villette. The slaughterhouses were relocated, the obsolete buildings were demolished, gradually transforming this once-disparaged area into a sought-after sector.
Metro stations serving Paris 19th District
Line 5: Porte de Pantin, Ourcq, Laumlière, Jaurès, Stalingrad
Line 7: Porte de la Villette, Corentin Cariou, Crimée, Riquet, Stalingrad
Line 7Bis: Jaurès, Bolivar, Buttes Chaumont, Botzaris, Danube, Pré St-Gervais, Place des Fêtes
Line 11: Porte des Lilas, Télégraphe, Place des Fêtes, Jourdain, Pyrénées, Belleville
