Porte de Montmartre, City gate in 18th arrondissement of Paris, France
The Porte de Montmartre is a city gate in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, located where Boulevard Ney meets Avenue de la Porte de Montmartre. It is one of the openings that once marked the official boundary of the city along its northern edge.
The Porte de Montmartre was built as part of the Thiers fortifications, a ring of defensive walls constructed around Paris in the 19th century. After the First World War, those walls were torn down and replaced by the boulevards des Maréchaux that still frame the city today.
The gate sits where the inner city gives way to the outer neighborhoods, and that shift is still felt today when you walk through. The area has a mixed, working-class feel that sets it apart from the more central parts of Paris.
The gate is easy to reach by metro, and the surrounding area can be explored on foot without difficulty. Coming outside of rush hours makes the crossing more comfortable, as it is a busy junction for both cars and pedestrians.
The strip of land just outside the old fortifications was legally forbidden from permanent construction for military reasons, yet thousands of people lived there in makeshift shelters for decades. This area, known as the Zone, was one of the largest informal settlements in European urban history before it was cleared in the mid-20th century.
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