Parc des Buttes-Chaumont

1863

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The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is one of the largest parks in the city of Paris. It was built between 1863 and 1867 by Jean-Charles Alphand at the behest of Napoleon III. With its picturesque rocks, streams, waterfalls, grottoes, meadows and viewpoints, it is one of the most popular of the Parisian parks. A famous feature of the park is the Temple de la Sibylle, perched at the top of a cliff fifty metres above the waters of the artificial lake. The old photo shows the terrain at the beginning of the construction. At the site of today's park was originally a landfill and a quarry. In 1862, at the suggestion of Baron Haussmann, the city decided to transform the forbidding area into a park, thereby improving the quality of living in the surrounding area. The work involved a great deal of effort: For the creation of the artificial mountains and rocks, one million cubic meters of earth had to be moved and twentythousand of trees planted.