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IAU îdF> Nos études> Three centuries of maps in the Ile-de-France - Volume 1

The 1965 master plan had three main thrusts : to channel physical expansion, create new urban centres, organise the unity of the urban region.- Photo : © Perceval (Alain), IAU îdF

In 1956, the watchwords of the revision of the Regional Development Plan for the Paris Region were : decentralise the metropolitan area (and particularly industry) towards the provinces, decongest Paris towards the suburbs, regenerate the suburbs through large housing estates!- Photo : © Bruchet (Jean), IAU îdF

Saint-Ouen got a new 1/5,000 scale map at around 1900. 5 lines of tramlines served the town and the public highways were lit by gas lamps.- Photo : © IAU îdF

The postcard of Athis-Mons shows the type of construction in the area at around 1900: millstone detached houses with industrial tile roofs, as well as small cabins hidden at the bottoms of mainly vegetable gardens, interspersed with fruit trees.- Photo : © IAU îdF

Two types of housing units marked the period between the two World Wars. These were low-income housing units (Habitations à Bon Marché, HBMs) and garden cities.- Photo : © IAU îdF

The study of the important events that have left their mark on the Ile-de-France in the course of three centuries of maps led to the listing and examination of many maps. 26 of them were analysed. Above the area covered by each of these maps.- Source IAU îdF © IAU îdF

Three centuries of maps in the Ile-de-France - Volume 1. Cahiers n° 119


Décembre 1997

In its constant concern to gain a better understanding of realities in the Ile-de-France, the IAU îdF has carried out an extensive study of maps of the region, covering a period of three centuries. The results are presented in two special issues of the Cahiers.

Map treasures

In this issue no. 119 of the Cahiers de l’IAURIF, the first idea was to try to illustrate the major transformations that Ile-de-France has undergone through the many maps produce in the course of its history. The second was to try to show what its urban or rural landscapes were like during the periods considered by drawing a parallel between the map and pictorial representations, whether in the form of engravings, paintings, or photographs… Contacts with the main depositories of documents (IGN, the national Archives, of Paris, the French National Library, Departmental Archives, various city libraries and museums, etc.) unearthed real treasures in the form of little or totally unused maps, administrative maps, atlases, feudal land registers and minute drawings. After that, our main preoccupation consisted in identifying these strata of maps to determine the places represented at different periods, in assessing their reliability, in mapping their coverage on the current map of the region, in deciding how to structure the presentation of these riches.

Through the eyes of a town planner

Four periods were delimited, each corresponding to a large map of Ile-de-France the 'Carte des Chasses', which covers the end of the Ancien Régime and shows the structuring of the landscape by the dense network of royal roads, parks of châteaux and forest paths, the 'Carte d’État Major', which shows the state of the region following the French Revolution and Empire, the map of France type 1900, which introduces the railway network, industry and urban extension, and the map of France type 1922, which shows the spatial explosion and the appearance of the network of modern infrastructure. The reader will find certain places whose transformation can be followed: Cormeilles-en-Vexin, Melun, Meudon, Pontoise...

Modern means

In the 1980s, new computer-based tools appeared that have added a new dimension to cartography, namely, the regional geographical information system developed by IAU île-de-France, the topology database developed by IGN, the computerised land register developed by the Inland Revenue Office, the Imago Metropolis project to make 3-D representations of vast landscapes. Our aim consisted in using these tools to digitise the four major maps analysed in the present volume in order to be able to draw from them certain numerical data. Using these IT tools shed light on the possibilities offered by a geographical approach to the identification of old maps as well as on the potential partnerships that could thus be established.

Etudes apparentées :

Trois siècles de cartographie en Île-de-France - Volume 1. Cahiers n° 119, Décembre 1997

Three centuries of maps in the Ile-de-France - Volume 2. Cahiers n° 120, Janvier 1998

Trois siècles de cartographie en Île-de-France - Volume 2. Cahiers n° 120, Mars 1998

Repères

the 'Carte des Chasses' map

  • Made between 1764 and 1774, the map was not completed until 1807. 12 sheets.
  • Scale: 1/28,800
  • Area: 3,400 sq. kilometers (about 28% of the present area of the Ile-de-France region).

It provides a wealth of information on land use in the 18th century.

the 'Carte d’État Major' map

  • 10 sheets that were first published between 1832 and 1839.
  • Made at a scale of 1/80,000 it provides the first homogeneous view of the region as a whole region (i.e., 12,011 sq. kimoleters).
  • The Paris sheet of the ‘Carte d’État Major’ was revised in 1852. A first series of updatings concerned the so-called ‘Thiers’ fortifications, which were first planned in 1841.

Compared to the ‘Carte des Chasses’ map

  • The railway which was then in full expansion added new dynamics
  • The network of ringroads has been reinforced since the map of 1832
  • Many new bridges have been built on the Seine
  • The main radial road network has been strengthened
  • The loop in the Marne has been crossed for the first time at Saint-Maur, between Créteil and Champigny.
  • In the mid-1840s, La Villette was the most important industrial and warehouse zone in the inner suburbs.

Map of France type 1900

  • 9 sheets. Surveyed from 1872 to 1900.
  • Area: 4,590 sq. kilometers in Ile-de-France (i.e., barely 40% of the surface area of the region).
  • Scale: 1/50,000
  • The relief is indicated on the map using contour lines instead of hachures.

Compared to the 'Carte d’État Major' map

  • The railways impose a new logic on physical planning. The town hall and the school are the visible signs of the effort to provide public amenities.
  • The Canal de l’Ourcq is a widely used navigation route
  • Quarries had developed to the extent that they are visible on the 1/50,000 scale map.
  • To the east of Auvervilliers and Pantin, ‘the farm country’, is virtually untouched by urban pressure.
  • Bobigny stood out because of the large expanse of its land under market gardening.
  • During WWI, the Ile-de-France region was profoundly and definitely industrialised.

Map of France type 1922

  • The first type 1922 sheets were published in 1931 but it was not until 1957 that the entire region was fully covered.
  • Scale: 1/50,000

Compared to the map of France type 1900

  • Strong impact of the railway on urbanization
  • Gradual development of Paris belt as a result of the declassification of fortifications 1919, the Cornudet law on the expansion of towns and cities 1919, the Louis Bonnier planning project of 1924
  • Large-scale industrial development in the near suburbs, in the early 1930s
  • Between 1921 and 1935 the garden cities constituted the typical social housing scheme on the outskirts of towns

The post-war period

  • Between 1933 and 1964 large housing estates took possession of the lands spares by the single-family housing wave and by infrastructure development.
  • Between 1954 and 1962, the industrial sector created around 500,000 jobs
  • The major new poles of activity in terms of numbers of jobs created were sites dedicated to single businesses like Orly, Saclay, Poissy, Flins, Orsay
  • The industrial zone that experienced the strongest growth is the Gennevilliers zone, largely associated with the port of paris
  • In 1964 the Seine and Seine-et-Oise departments were split up into seven new departments
  • The 1965 master plan is the region’s first master plan
  • New towns, capable of housing around three million residents supported by powerful transportation infrastructure regional express rail transit (RER) and motorways.
  • In the 1970s catalogue homes represented 80% of private construction