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by Zhebiton
Moscow, Moskva, Russia
March 12, 2011
From journal The most popular tourist destinations in the world.
by paolo1899
Naples, Italy
November 1, 2007
From journal Hotel de Ville
by kjlouden
, West Virginia
August 18, 2004
Creative execution Torture took many forms. Dissenting folk were boiled alive, strangled, burned, beheaded or "quartered" (pulled apart by 4 horses, one tied to each limb). Leonora Galigai, favorite of Marie de Medici (Queen of France after Henry IV’s death) was beheaded and burned here for sorcery (or, more accurately, for having too much influence). Anne Dubourg (a man) was burned alive for pleading for more humanitarian treatment of heretics under Henry II, and Captain Montgomery met a similar fate. The most famous scene witnessed here must have been the torture and quartering in 1610 of Francois Ravaillac, who stabbed Henry IV because he believed that the good King would turn the country Protestant. I imagine a huge bloodthirsty public showed up for that event! What drama! (I really must review our own history.)
The class struggle lasted a long time! Shopping, griping, and torture--all combined to establish Place de Greve as the main staging arena, the "message board" for communication between government and citizenry--or aristocracy and common folk, if you want to look at it as a class thing. The more I read, the more I am convinced that no other square in Paris saw so much of the drama of political or class struggle. This fact alone makes it worth a visit. For our Saturday there, it was bare, easy to view as a stage. Descriptions make much of the lampposts, a long row of them, and even they are off to the side, but decorated with sculpture.
Hotel de Ville The building didn’t always look this impressive.
In 1871 after Thiers’ army and the Paris Commune were finished with it, it looked like this. If you want to learn more about the bloodbath that occurred here that year that set back the labor movement in France for many decades, see this story. The Communards occupied this seat of government long enough to make major changes, which I imagine led to some compromises after they were massacred. For one, they didn't want notaries to inherit their positions.
Exhibit space Inside, an exhibit (that has been there for some time) concerns the notaries of Paris and the Notary Acts. This is complicated reading for one with limited French, so we deciphered little. We found no literature in English, but we didn’t ask.
From journal All For The Love Of A River