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Paris will really soar in the 11th century with the Capetian Dynasty; which kings are very are intimately linked to the city since they were born and araised in the Parisian area. Capetians kings, most noticeably king Philippe Auguste, quickly understood the benefits and opportunities linked to the development of the city as far as serving their interests in regaining their lost influence in the Kingdom and initiate the construction of a Modern State. The city gets equiped with new administrative institutional, military, legal, universitary infrastructures. Paris starts fortification works, drawing a line between the city and the country as shows the wall surrounding it. The city is now parted in two : the right bank and the left bank . The right bank - rive droite - is dedicated to trading (les Halles) and to political and religious authorities,(Court and "hôpital de l'Hôtel-dieu"), the left bank (rive gauche) is dedicated to the universitary and intellectual elite. With about 80 000 inhabitants, Paris is by the 13th century, the largest city from Christian Europe and will suffer in the follwing century famine and the plague. The weakened and divided kingdom then enters into conflict with England for the next 100 years and will only find again peace and prosperity in the middle of the 15th century.
Know more about Paris in the Middle Age : Middle Age museum for children Paris
Lutetia the Gallo Romane ,Paris and the renaissance, Paris in the 19th century
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