A Image Of Royal Control And Revolutionary Success

In the history of Europe, there are only a few places that carry such a powerful memory and arouse such a potent image as the dreaded Bastille. While the structure of the dreaded Bastille de Paris is no more, the effect of the structure and the symbolic meaning of that fateful day in 1789 has persisted not only in the memory of the French, but in other parts of the Europe as well.

In comparison to other prisons of the age, the cells were actually rather peaceable. By far, as a place of detainment, the Bastille was relatively mild and, contrasting other prisons during the dominion of the Bourbon dynasty of France, the conditions can be considered humane. However, what had singled out the place was the fact that the people took the Bastille de Paris as the ever-present symbol of the viciousness and despotism of the French king, who sent various political and religious dissidents to the place. At a time when the king seemed preoccupied with excessive parties and costly indiscretions, the peasants saw the political prisoners in the the Bastille as heroes of the common man.

The hated Bastille, as I've said, is gone, but the spirit remains. Remembered by many as the first shot fired in the French Revolution, the fall of the loathed asylum would become, in time, the herald to the removal from power of many other monarchs and, in a way, a catalyst for revolutions across the governments of Europe.