PARIS STREET LAMPS

The street lamps of Paris add a fascinating aspect to the avenues and lanes of "the city of light".

A law was passed in 1524 requiring home owners to have a lantern with a lit candle outside their homes. The law was largely ignored prompting the Parisian police in 1594 to take responsibility for the installation of lanterns in the city.  

In 1667 the government of Louis XIV began installing lanterns on the streets and records show that by 1669, three thousand were in place and sixty years later the number had grown to six thousand.

The gilded example to the right was photographed outside Sainte Chapelle.

OJ