As a result of rapid industrialization, a sharp rise in population,
extreme compression and uncontrolled urban growth, a regulating,
ordering planning became necessary in the middle of the 19th century.
For Paris, this operation is primarily associated with
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who was appointed as prefect of the
city by Napoleon III in 1853. Since then, his name has been connected with new boulevards, public works and gardens which characterize the city until today, but also with the destruction of the past, in a poetic viewpoint.
The architectural historian Alexandre Gady, professor for architectural history at the Sorbonne in Paris, explaines in his lecture the backgrounds of the metamorphoses of Paris in the 19th century, and the battle between old and new Paris until today.

The lecture begins at 18:00.