Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 158 i All About History

One of the most famous museum institutions in the world, the Louvre is a must-visit destination for anyone travelling to the City of Light. With 35,000 items on display, it holds around 500,000 objects in its wider collection. And with 73,000 square-metres of exhibition space, it’s also one of the largest museums in the world. The Louvre started life as a medieval fortress built towards the end of the 12th century. Designed to defend Paris, the structure was erected by King Philip II and later renovated into a royal castle by Charles V in the 14th century. This incarnation of the building was eventually torn down by Francis I in 1546 and replaced by a newer royal palace: the beginning of the Louvre as it is today. The Renaissance-style palace…

Downie is an author and journalist who divides his time between Italy and France. He has written a number of books on the cuisine of those countries, including A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair With Food. His latest work is Shadows of Rome: A Memoir, and he publishes as @daviddownieauthor on Substack. How did Paris earn a reputation as a food-loving city? That reputation has a lot to do with the invention, if you will, of the à la carte restaurant in the second half of the 1700s. Prior to that you went to a tavern, or auberge, and got pot luck, meaning whatever was available that day. Suddenly a handful of eating establishments popped up in the vicinity of the Louvre and Palais-Royal, the…

“THE GOVERNMENT MADE RESTORING HIROSHIMA A NATIONAL MISSION THAT REPRESENTED THE BEGINNING OF A NEW JAPAN” Walking around Hiroshima today, you will find a modern, bustling metropolis. Its wide main streets and high-rise buildings are evidence of a city of industry and commercial success. In some places, it’s hard to believe that 80 years ago it was decimated by an atomic explosion. But Hiroshima holds tight to this legacy and, from the first days after the detonation, the city has charted a new path. It set its sights on a new future while openly wearing some of its scars as a vivid reminder of the destruction humanity can inflict upon itself. The Bomb At 8:15am on 6 August 1945 an atomic bomb, dubbed Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima by…

On 6 June 1944, 150,000 Allied troops stormed across the beaches of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France. Codenamed Operation Overlord, it was an audacious but ultimately successful attempt to establish a beachhead and begin the liberation of Europe. The biggest amphibious assault ever seen was crucial to Allied victory and its anniversary is widely celebrated. But what if the landings had ended in disaster? Would this have simply delayed the inevitable defeat of Germany? Or could the Axis Powers have crushed their enemies once and for all? What was the situation in June 1944 prior to the Normandy landings? In a nutshell, the war is going very well for the Allies but not so well for Nazi Germany. Down on the southern front in Italy, the Allies had broken through the…

NAPOLEON Director: Ridley Scott Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim Country: France Year: 2023 Can one of cinema’s great directors wrestle this sweeping tale into submission where others failed? VERDICT: Picks the legend over the facts more often than not. 01 The film opens with the execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793, which Captain Napoleon Bonaparte (Phoenix) is present to witness. In reality, Napoleon was busy dealing with the Siege of Toulon, the event from which he began to rise up the ranks. 02 Having successfully handled Toulon, Napoleon is entrusted with the French campaign in Egypt. The timeline for this is correct, but the Battle of the Pyramids did not see Napoleon fire on the monuments as the film shows. The battle was 11km away. 03 The volatile…

17 July 1918 THE ROMANOV FAMILY ARE KILLED Following the February Revolution of 1917, Tsar Nicholas II was deposed as Emperor of Russia and he and his family were placed under house arrest. By May 1918, the new Bolshevik government had moved Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their five children – Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei – to the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. There, in the early hours of 17 July 1918, the Romanov imperial family and their entourage were taken to the basement, where they were shot and bayoneted. This photograph shows the holes in the wall made by investigators as they searched for the bullets. 7 August 1974 TWIN TOWERS TIGHTROPE ACT French performance artist Philippe Petit made headlines in the early hours of 7 August 1974…

Paris, 1777-1782 As the 18th century drew to a close, Paris had a problem – its cemeteries were quickly becoming overcrowded. As sanitation issues and health risks became more widespread, the unprecedented decision was taken to move millions of the remains away from the city centre. But where to? Deep beneath the suburbs lay a vast network of abandoned mines, the Tombe-Issoire quarries, once used to harvest stone for construction. Over several years, in the dark of night bodies were removed and taken to these tunnels. During the following century these remains were rearranged and the macabre Paris catacombs as we know them today were created. Among the many strange sites that can be found among the skull-embedded tunnels, the most curious have to be the sculptures of Port Mahon in…

1 EIFFEL TOWER CHAMP DE MARS A bucket list destination for many people around the world and the most famous landmark in Paris, the Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of France. Construction work on the huge wrought-iron structure began in 1887 and it was completed two years later. Its opening marked the centenary of the French Revolution and it was also the centrepiece of the International Exposition of 1889. Designed by Gustave Eiffel, it served as the impressive entrance to the exposition. Nicknamed La Dame de Fer (The Iron Lady), the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris at 330 metres high and dominates the city’s skyline. Located on the banks of the Seine, it provides the perfect lookout over the city for visitors who venture up to…

Graves, tombs and burial sites are some of the enduring legacies left behind by the people of the past. They provide a tangible connection to those who came before us, keeping their memory alive. They also provide us with information, presenting clues through which we can understand more about the lives they lived. Tombs of history’s famous figures are sites of interest and pilgrimage to many, but there are some people for whom we cannot identify a final resting place. Some of these tombs were lost to time, others were never meant to be found. The mysteries of these lost sites have inspired archaeologists and historians for centuries, with searches happening up to the present day to try and solve them. Here are just a few of history’s most intriguing…

The croque monsieur is one of French cuisine’s most famous exports and one of its easiest recipes – a simple toasted cheese and ham sandwich that has been adapted and riffed upon for decades. There is some debate about when it was first conceived, with the most common story placing its invention around 1910 in a cafe run by Michel Lunarca. He’s said to have named it ‘crunchy mister’ to make fun of accusations that he was using human meat in his sandwiches. The ghoulish gag did nothing to harm sales. However there is some evidence that the sandwich predates this story, although the origins may still be similar. A croque monsieur is mentioned in an 1891 issue of the magazine La Revue Athletique, which featured a story about this…

MAY 1588 DAY OF THE BARRICADES A popular uprising begins in Paris in support of the Duke of Guise and the Catholic League against Henry III as part of the French Wars of Religion. Streets are blockaded with barrels full of earth and paving stones. 1163 NOTRE-DAME CONSTRUCTION Work begins on building Notre-Dame de Paris, which translates as ‘Our Lady of Paris’, during the reign of Louis VII of France. The project on the eastern side of the Île de la Cité is completed by 1345. FEB 1848 THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION King Louis Philippe is overthrown by a popular uprising in Paris as economic troubles and political dissolution ends what is known as the July Monarchy. A Second Republic begins, but only lasts until 1851 with Napoleon III proclaiming himself emperor. MARCH 1871…

Jean Cocteau French 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963 Jean Cocteau was a 20th century Renaissance man who excelled as an artist, writer and filmmaker, among his many other talents. From 1944, Cocteau maintained a flat in Paris and after 1947 he alternated between this and his home in the small village of Milly-la-Forêt. Among his most famous works are the 1926 play Orphée (the artist’s interpretation of the Orpheus myth), his avant-garde 1946 interpretation of Beauty and the Beast and his interior decorations of the Chapelle Saint-Pierre in Villefranche-sur-Mer (1957). Cocteau was known to have had numerous relationships with both men and women, among them actor and director Jean Marais. MAN RAY AMERICAN, 27 AUGUST 1890 – 18 NOVEMBER 1976 Despite being born in Pennsylvania, it was in…

The Norse gods are a world apart from their southern counterparts. Unlike the beautiful, aloof and immortal deities of the Greek tradition, the Norse gods get their hands dirty with the grime of human existence, and share all our proclivities, contradictions and failings. Along with their human allies, they are caught in an existential conflict with the giants and the monsters of the Norse imagination, and struggle to impose their will on a chaotic world. Most striking of all is the fact that they will ultimately fail in the effort to protect their civilisation, and will lose the final battle against the giants. They can delay the inevitable for a time, but there is no escape from the fate that the violent creation of the world sets in motion. THE…

Book Film TV Podcast Games Other THE GOLD: SERIES 2 The fallout of one of the largest robberies in British history continues in this thrilling drama Creator: Neil Forsyth Distributor: BBC iPlayer Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Emun Elliott, Charlotte Spencer Released: Out now Broadcast in 2023, series one of The Gold told the story of the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery in which thieves made away with 6,800 bars of gold worth £26 million – over £100 million today. Series one was incredibly popular, drawing 8.7 million viewers for its first episode alone and receiving critical acclaim. It ended with Hugh Bonneville’s DCS Brian Boyce and his team discovering that half the stolen loot was still unaccounted for. So viewers were left with an obvious question: what happened to the other half? As…