Rue d'Alésia
Street in Paris, France
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rue d'Alésia is a major street in the south of Paris, which runs along the entire east–west length of the 14th arrondissement. It is one of the few streets in Paris named after a French defeat, or more precisely, a Gallic defeat: the Battle of Alesia. Lined with acacia trees, the street extends to the east as the Rue de Tolbiac into the 13th arrondissement, and to the west as the Rue de Vouillé into the 15th arrondissement. It intersects the Avenue du Général Leclerc at the Place Victor et Hélène Basch (or simply Alésia), the location of the Église Saint Pierre de Montrouge and the Alésia Métro station.
| |
  Location within Paris | |
| Arrondissement | 14th |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 48°49′39″N 2°20′4″E |
| From | Rue de Tolbiac |
| To | Rue de Vouillé |
Mahmoud Hamshari, the representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization to France, was assassinated by Mossad agents at his home in the Rue d'Alésia on 8 December 1972.[1]
History
The Rue d'Alésia was formed by the merger, under a decree of 10 August 1868, of two roads. The eastern section, between avenue Reille and the place Victor-et-Hélène-Basch, was opened between 1863 and 1870 and was already known as the Rue d'Alésia.[2]
The western section, between the Place Victor-et-Hélène-Basch and the rue Vercingétorix, originated as a rural road known as the chemin de la Justice, which is shown on the Roussel map of 1730. The name referred to a gallows belonging to the seigneurial justice of the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, probably located near the present-day end of the Impasse Florimont. The abbey's extensive fief included much of what is now the 14th arrondissement and extended towards Vanves and Montrouge. Until 1674, it exercised low, middle and high justice (seigneurial judicial jurisdiction) over its territory. The gallows, where the bodies of executed criminals were displayed, were intended to deter crime. They appear on several 18th-century maps and survived for some time after the abolition of Paris's seigneurial jurisdictions by Louis XIV in 1674.[3]
On the 1804 cadastral map of Montrouge, the road was known as the chemin des Bœufs ("Cattle Road"), a name associated with the route used to drive cattle to the slaughterhouses of Vaugirard. It subsequently became part of the departmental road No. 10, known successively as the route du Transit and the boulevard du Transit. In 1868, the road was incorporated into the Rue d'Alésia.[2]
The name Rue d'Alésia commemorates the ancient Gallic settlement of Alesia and its famous siege by Julius Caesar in 52 BC. The name was officially assigned to the street in 1868, although it is recorded as having been in use for the eastern section during the preceding years.[2]
Part of the street formerly bordered the ZAC Alésia-Montsouris development zone.
