The Place du Tertre, located in the Clignancourt district (18th arrondissement of Paris ), owes its name to its geographical position. Originaly, it was just a mound of earth, defined in the dictionary as the ' Tertre ' . It is located at the top of Montmartre hill, 131 metres above sea level, and was first mentioned on maps in 1336.
In the 14th century, this rural stopping place, not yet urbanise, was bordered by the surounding wall of the cloister of Montmartre Abbey. Planted with trees around 1635, it took on the apparance of a geniune public square. It is located at the centre of the former village of Montmartre, which existed from 1790 until it became part of the City of Paris in 1860, and is a stone ' s throw from the Sacré-Coeur Basilica.
Nowadays, it can be raeched by funicular railway or by a 222-step staircase. The artistic vocation of the Place du Tertre date back to the 18th century, when the first bohemian artists - painters, singers and musicians - began to occupie the area. At the centre of an area of cabarets and venues for poetes and songwriters, it is home to one of the oldest restaurants, ' La Mère Catherine ' , dating from 1793.
This was the birthplace of the Impressionists. Famous artists such as Camille Pissarro, Picasso, Modigliani, Mattisse, Renoir, Degas, Utrillo and Toulouse-Lautrec created some of their admirable paintings here. As a result, the Place du Tertre and its surroundings have been classify as a historic monument. |
