1790 Palloy Plan or Map of the Bastille, Paris, France

This is a rare 1790 Pierre-François Palloy broadside map of the Bastille published as part of Palloy's brilliant contemporaneous merchandising of the French Revolution. Palloy recognized the significance of the Bastille as a symbol of the French Revolution. With the inspired idea that he would sell off the Bastille block by block, Palloy began demolishing the infamous prison on the night of its Storming. His entrepreneurship and promotional efforts not only made him rich, they also effectively cemented the Storming of the Bastille in the global imagination. The printed ephemera Palloy published to promote his demolition of the rebranding of the Bastille is thus of the utmost significance and rarity - this being just one of just 6 confirmed surviving examples.

Palloy and the Bastille

On the night of July 14, 1789, as the mob that stormed the Bastille moved on, the enterprising Palloy sent workers to the still-smoldering Bastille to begin demolition. Two days later, on the 16th, city electors formally awarded him the demolition contract. With nearly 1,000 workers on site daily for the subsequent 2 years, Palloy took apart the infamous prison block by block. Parisian society flocked to observe the historic work; among them, influential figures such as Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Count of Mirabeau and Pierre Beaumarchais. Calling himself 'Palloy Patriote', he hosted grand balls on the prison's ruins, capitalizing on the public interest.

Palloy let nothing go to waste - the stones, chains, and other parts of the prison were sold or given as souvenirs to government officials and the public. Among the items created were scale models of the Bastille (one of which he sent to each of the 83 newly created French Departments), medallions, dominoes, and card games. He even commissioned busts of Mirabeau and Rousseau carved from the Bastille's stonework. It has been estimated that Palloy produced some 25,000 medallions from the melted-down ironwork. Palloy's propagandistic promotion not only earned him a fortune, it cemented the Storming of the Bastille as a fundamental symbol of the French Revolution.

A Closer Look

The Bastille's 8 imposing towers dominate the image, each numerically indexed in the bottom corners. Over 36 locations are identified, with multiple shops, stables, and other locations keyed to the same number. Other identified locations include the library, the chapel, two drawbridges, the kitchens, and the governor's quarters. A short history of the Bastille written by Palloy occupies the space between the indexes.

The Bastille

The Bastille (officially known as the Bastille Saint-Antoine) was constructed between 1357 and 1380, during the Hundred Years' War (1337 - 1453), as a fortress to protect Paris's eastern approaches. It was an innovative design, with 8 towers overlooking Porte Saint-Antoine. Later, the fortress played a prominent role in French domestic conflicts, including the 15th-century Armagnac-Burgundian Civil War and the 16th-century Wars of Religion. The Bastille became a state prison in 1417, initially for nobility, but from 1659 as a general prison. 5,279 prisoners had been imprisoned in the Bastille by 1789. During the 18th century, the infamy of the Bastille grew as it became synonymous with oppressive government enforcement of political dissent.

The Storming of the Bastille

The Storming of the Bastille took place on July 14, 1789 (Bastille Day) at the outset of the French Revolution (1789 - 1799). After weeks of turmoil, tensions in Paris built toward a general riot, which the monarchy moved to put down. Parisians stormed the Hôtel des Invalides to capture the roughly 30,000 muskets stockpiled there. The mob discovered that the gunpowder had been moved to the Bastille for safer storage earlier that week. This led to the Bastille, already a hated symbol of monarchical oppression, being targeted next. The mob began forming outside the Bastille by mid-morning, and fighting erupted around 1:30 p.m., continuing until around 5:00 p.m. The governor of the Bastille, Bernard-René de Launay, opened the gates around 5:30 p.m., at which point he was promptly executed. The fall of the Bastille galvanized revolutionary fervor across France, leading to the widespread collapse of royal authority and the eventual rise of the revolutionary government.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Pierre-François Palloy and engraved by Jean Baptiste Chapuy and published in 1790 on the first anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille. We have identified just 6 confirmed surviving examples: the present map, 3 at the BnF, 1 at the Archives Nationales, and a 5th at the Getty Research Institute.