Louise Michel

We went to an exhibit in Montmartre yesterday, right across from the "square Louise Michel", at the foot of the long, steep stairways leading to The Basilica of the Sacred Heart. 

I think this was built as a memorial to the hostages – including the Archbishop of Paris – who were shot by the communards in 1871, in retaliation for the military execution of some of their own. Interestingly, the square is now named after one of the communards, whose lover went to the guillotine for it. Her name was Louise Michel, called the "Red Virgin of Montmartre". Also "the good Louise". She was a teacher and an anarchist. She was deported to New Caledonia, where she set to work teaching the indigenous people. There was an amnesty after a couple of years, and she returned to France – unrepentant – where she spent the rest of her life in and out of jail. The plaque identifying the "square Louise Michel" identifies her as a heroine of the commune. She remains a heroine for the French left, I guess.

Not so, the late-19th-century building that crowns this hill (the highest in Paris, I think). Many (especially leftists) consider it a disgusting monstrosity. the style is called "Neo-Byzantine", although it doesn't look much like anything produced in the 1000 years of that culture. I think it has more in common with the fantastic imagery of art nouveau, which I like a lot better. I suppose it is to Byzantium what Neuschwanstein is to  medieval German castles, or Ishak Pasha Sarai is to the palaces of Abbasid Bagdad: a romantic fantasy.