Editing Napoleon III (section)

===Reconstruction of Paris (1854–1870)===
{{Main|Haussmann's renovation of Paris}}
[[File:Adolphe Yvon - Haussmann présente à l'Empereur le plan d'annexion des Communes.jpg|thumb|[[Georges-Eugène Haussmann]] and Napoleon III make official the annexation of eleven communes around Paris to the city. The annexation increased the size of the city from twelve to the present twenty arrondissements.]]

Napoleon III began his regime by launching a series of enormous public works projects in Paris, hiring tens of thousands of workers to improve the sanitation, water supply and traffic circulation of the city. To direct this task, he named a new prefect of the [[Seine department]], [[Georges-Eugène Haussmann]], and gave him extraordinary powers to rebuild the center of the city. He installed a large map of Paris in a central position in his office, and he and Haussmann planned the new Paris.{{Sfn|De Moncan|2009|p=15}}

The population of Paris had doubled since 1815, with neither an increase in its area nor a development of its structure of very narrow medieval streets and alleys.

To accommodate the growing population and those who would be forced from the center by the construction of new boulevards and squares, Napoleon issued a decree in 1860 to [[Municipal annexation|annex]] eleven [[Communes of France|communes]] (municipalities) on the outskirts of Paris and increase the number of [[Arrondissements of Paris|arrondissements]] (city boroughs) from twelve to twenty. Paris was thus enlarged to its modern boundaries with the exception of the two major city parks ([[Bois de Boulogne]] and [[Bois de Vincennes]]) that became part of the French capital in 1920.

For the duration of Napoleon III's reign and a decade afterwards, most of Paris was an enormous construction site. His hydraulic chief engineer, [[Eugène Belgrand]], built a new aqueduct to bring clean water from the [[Vanne (river)|Vanne River]] in the [[Champagne (province)|Champagne region]], and a new huge reservoir near the future [[Parc Montsouris]]. These two works increased the water supply of Paris from 87,000 to 400,000 cubic meters of water a day.{{Sfn|De Moncan|2009|p=21}} Hundreds of kilometers of pipes distributed the water throughout the city, and a second network, using the less-clean water from the [[Ourcq]] and the [[Seine]], washed the streets and watered the new park and gardens. He completely rebuilt the [[Paris sewers]] and installed miles of pipes to distribute gas for thousands of new [[streetlight]]s along the Paris streets.{{Sfn|Milza|2006}}{{Page needed|date=March 2021}}

Beginning in 1854, in the center of the city, Haussmann's workers tore down hundreds of old buildings and constructed new avenues to connect the central points of the city. Buildings along these avenues were required to be the same height, constructed in an architecturally similar style, and be faced with cream-coloured stone to create the signature look of Paris boulevards.

The emperor built two new railway stations: the [[Gare de Lyon]] (1855) and the [[Gare du Nord]] (1865). He completed [[Les Halles]], the great cast iron and glass pavilioned produce market in the center of the city, and built a new municipal hospital, the [[Hôtel-Dieu, Paris|Hôtel-Dieu]], in the place of crumbling medieval buildings on the [[Ile de la Cité]]. The signature architectural landmark was the [[Paris Opera]], the largest theater in the world, designed by [[Charles Garnier (architect)|Charles Garnier]] to crown the center of Napoleon's new Paris.<ref>Ayers, Andrew (2004). ''The Architecture of Paris''. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. {{ISBN|978-3-9306-9896-7}}</ref>

Napoleon also wanted to build new parks and gardens for the recreation and relaxation of the Parisians, particularly those in the new neighbourhoods of the expanding city.{{Sfn|Jarrassé|2007}}{{Page needed|date=March 2021}} Napoleon's new parks were inspired by his memories of the parks in London, especially [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], where he had strolled and promenaded in a carriage while in exile; but he wanted to build on a much larger scale. Working with Haussmann and [[Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand]], the engineer who headed the new Service of Promenades and Plantations, he laid out a plan for four major parks at the cardinal points of the compass around the city. Thousands of workers and gardeners began to dig lakes, build cascades, plant lawns, flowerbeds and trees, and construct chalets and grottoes. Napoleon III transformed the [[Bois de Boulogne]] into a park to the west of Paris. To the east, he created the [[Bois de Vincennes]], and to the north, the [[Parc des Buttes-Chaumont]]. The [[Parc Montsouris]] was created to the south.{{Sfn|Jarrassé|2007}}{{Page needed|date=March 2021}}

In addition to building the four large parks, Napoleon had the city's older parks, including the [[Parc Monceau]], formerly owned by the [[House of Orléans|Orléans family]], and the [[Jardin du Luxembourg]], refurbished and replanted. He also created some twenty small parks and gardens in the neighbourhoods as miniature versions of his large parks. Alphand termed these small parks "green and flowering salons". The intention of Napoleon's plan was to have one park in each of the eighty "quartiers" (neighbourhoods) of Paris, so that no one was more than a ten-minute walk from such a park. The parks were an immediate success with all classes of Parisians.{{Sfn|Jarrassé|2007|p=134}}