The Wall of the Farmers-General was one of the walls of Paris, built from 1784 to 1790. It measured about 24 kilometers and was created to allow the Ferme Générale to charge a tax on goods entering the capital. The project was proposed in 1784 by Lavoisier to Charles-Alexandre de Calonne and was accepted and constructed. Its openings were intended for the entry of essential goods, in an effort to fight smuggling.
Passages in the enclosure were called barriers, and most were equipped with buildings known as propileus, designed by the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. The wall functioned as a purely fiscal enclosure from the beginning of its construction, which made it very unpopular with Parisians, who felt enclosed in order to pay taxes. It was also criticized on aesthetic grounds. The wall was destroyed in 1860 during the extension of Paris to the Wall of Thiers. Its route corresponds roughly to the second ring of avenues in present-day Paris.
Construction and Fiscal Role
Le Mur des Fermiers Ge9ne9raux was one of the walls of Paris, built between 1784 and 1790. In 1784, Lavoisier proposed to Charles-Alexandre de Calonne that Paris be enclosed by a new surrounding wall, and the project was accepted and constructed. The wall was 24 kilometers long and served a fiscal purpose: it allowed the Ferme Ge9ne9rale to charge a tax on goods entering Paris. Openings in the enclosure were used to introduce essential goods into the capital and to fight smuggling. Its fiscal function made the wall very unpopular. Passages in the enclosure were called barriers, and most were equipped with buildings called propileus designed by architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. The wall was destroyed in 1860 during the extension of Paris to the Wall of Thiers.
Route and extent of the wall
The Wall of the Farmers-General was initially seven leagues long, equal to 24 km. In present-day Paris, its course corresponds to the second ring of avenues and to the relevant boulevards of the city. The route crossed major neighborhoods and places including Place d'Italie, Denfert-Rochereau, Montparnasse, Trocadero, Etoile, Batignolles, Pigalle, Belleville, and Nation. The wall had sixty-one barriers. Its path is also reflected in parts of the modern transport network: the metro line from Charles de Gaulle-Etoile to Nation follows the wall route, while metro line 2 to the north and metro line 6 to the south roughly follow it.
Fiscal Control and Public Reaction
From the beginning of its construction, the Wall of the Farmers-General served as a purely fiscal wall. It became a visible sign of tax collection in Paris and was set as the city limit on May 21, 1790. This limit remained unchanged until January 1, 1860, except for the annexation of Vila de Austerlitz in 1818. The wall and its barriers were widely disliked. Parisians felt imprisoned in order to pay taxes, and the surrounding wall caused murmurs among them. Beaumarchais considered it one of the causes of the Revolution, while Louis-Sebastien Mercier denounced it in his Tableau de Paris in 1788. The majestic architecture of Ledoux's pavilions also intensified its unpopularity, and the architect was criticized for taking excessive liberties with old canons.
The fiscal regime attached to the wall changed several times. The octroi was abolished on January 20, 1791 by the Constituent Assembly, then restored on October 18, 1798. Under the Directory, tax perception at the Paris entries was slight and was used for hospital charity, and the barriers were repaired when the charity tax was established. Napoleon significantly improved tax collection at the barriers. At the same time, the octroi encouraged the growth of many guinguettes beyond the barriers, and the wall became associated with places for pleasure and popular distractions in Paris. It also entered popular culture through songs such as Un jour de fete a la barriere by Louis Festeau and Montons a la barriere by Dales senior around 1840.
Demolition and Partial Preservation
After the completion of the Thiers Wall in 1843, the Wall of the Farmers-General ceased to operate, although it continued to be maintained. New concession offices were later opened at sites such as Barriere des Batailles in 1848 and Barriere de Montrouge in 1854. In 1860, Paris was extended to the Thiers Wall, and the concession for the Farmers-General wall was refused for that new boundary. The wall itself was demolished within one month in January 1860, during the broader expansion of Paris and the absorption of twenty-four suburban communes, which increased the number of arrondissements from twelve to twenty. Its pavilions were auctioned in January 1861 while demolition was still underway. There was no public movement to preserve the wall at the time. The Barriere dItalie, later used by the administration of the 13th arrondissement, was destroyed in 1877. In the end, only four pavilions, also described as four propileus, were preserved.
Preserved Remains of the Wall
Several preserved Historic structures survive from the Wall of the Farmers-General. These include the Barriere de Chartres rotunda in Parc Monceau, the Rotunda de la Villette, two columns of the Barriere du Trone, and one of the two pavilions of the Barriere d'Enfer. Together, these remains mark the continuing presence of the wall within the city through isolated architectural elements rather than the complete structure.