14th-century gate The Porte Saint-Denis was originally a gateway through the
Wall of Charles V that was built between 1356 and 1383 to protect the
Right Bank of Paris. The medieval fortification had two gates and was surmounted with four towers. Additional portcullises defended the outer gate along with a drawbridge and rock-cut ditch. However, with the advent of gunpowder and the development of
cannons and
bombards, the walls were eventually partly torn down in the 1640s to make way for the larger and more fortified Louis XIII Wall. In the 1670s, the remaining walls of Charles V were entirely demolished when Paris spread beyond the confines of its medieval boundaries. File:Entrée de Charles V à Paris.jpg|Entrance of
Charles V of France into Paris via the old Porte Saint-Denis on 2 August 1358,
Grandes Chroniques de France, miniature by
Jean Fouquet, 1455–1460 File:Porte.Saint.Denis.Paris.png|The 14th-century Porte Saint-Denis, as reconstructed by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century File:Plan de Paris vers 1550 porte St-Denis.jpg|Porte Saint-Denis as depicted on the 1550 Paris map of Truschet and Hoyau
17th-century gate , 1675.
Musée du Louvre, Paris. To replace the old gateway of the Porte Saint-Denis,
Louis XIV commanded
architect François Blondel and the sculptor
Michel Anguier to build him a monumental archway that would honor the capture of
Franche-Comté in 1668 and the victories on the
Meuse and
Rhine during the
Franco-Dutch War. Work began in 1672 and was paid for by the
city of Paris. The construction of the gate was carried out by Blondel's student
Pierre Bullet. A monument defining the official art of its epoque, the Porte Saint-Denis provided the subject of the engraved frontispiece to Blondel's influential ''Cours d'architecture'', 1698. It was restored in 1988. The Porte Saint-Denis was the first of four triumphal arches to be built in Paris. The three others are the
Porte Saint-Martin (1674), the
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (1806–1808), and the
Arc de Triomphe (1836). == Description ==