Didn't you know Place d'Aligre (12th century) when it looked like a village square, before a block of apartment buildings disfigured it in the 1960s?
Go to the website of the city of Paris.
You can admire the esplanade of the famous market immortalized in 1920 by the photographer Charles Lansiaux.
Would you like to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the Halles de Baltard between the wars?
A few clicks and you embark on the time machine.
The device is quite simple.
Just type in the address of your choice to find the corresponding photo, with the title, caption, date of shooting and some additional information.
You can also give free rein to your imagination by starting from the map of Paris, riddled with red dots on which you just have to click to see the building located at this place appear as it was fifty years or a century ago. .
The port of La Bourdonnais in 1932. Commission du Vieux/Paris.Charles Lansiaux
A trip to the past, completely free, made possible by the posting this week of the fund of more than 10,000 photos of the Commission du Vieux Paris (CVP) which covers more than half a century, from 1916 until in the 1970s. "Making this available on the Internet is the greatest gift that the CVP could give to researchers", believes Pauline Rossi, in charge of studies at the Department of History of Architecture and Archeology of the City of Paris.
“A real public service tool”
“Very useful for knowledgeable people, architects for example, this new tool will also be of interest to Mr. and Mrs. Everyone who wants to know what was in place of the building where they live”, remarks Karen Taïeb (PS app) , assistant in charge of the heritage and history of Paris.
While affirming that it is "a real public service tool", Simon Texier, secretary general of the CVP, underlines how important "the photos of the shops are important because, when the shop fronts disappear, it only the photo reports remain”.
Facade of the Paris courthouse, the Cour du Mai, in 1916. Commission du Vieux Paris/Charles Lansiaux
President of the Old Paris Commission, Jean-François Legaret is delighted that “what we call
the locker
at the commission is now accessible online”.
And recalls that, "from its creation in 1897, the CVP very quickly understood the usefulness of photography".
As a result, continues the former mayor of the 1st arrondissement, “there have always been photographers attached to the commission.
Whenever there is a threat to a precious heritage element, the first instinct is to go and photograph it to keep in our archives what is at risk of being demolished due, for example, to an urban planning operation. .
» Even today, two professional photographers, Marc Lelièvre and Pascal Saussereau, are attached to the service of the CVP.
An interactive map
Nearly two months of work at the start of the year were needed to put together this digital photo library backed by an interactive map that allows you to immediately find the address you are looking for.
“The bulk of the work, namely conserving, restoring, inventorying and digitizing the collection, had been done for several decades.
We took over the inventories, we cleaned them and georeferenced them so that each photo corresponded to an address”, explains Julien Avinain, head of the archeology center at the department of history of architecture and archeology of the City of Paris. , who adds that this mission was carried out in partnership with the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research).
