Amazing Vintage Photos of Paris From the 1860s

An official photographer for the city of Paris during the mid-1800s, Charles Marville was tasked with documenting the medieval streets of old Paris during the time that Haussmann, an urban planner under Napoleon, was demolishing chunks of the city to make way for larger boulevards and structures. Many of these streets have been destroyed and rebuilt.

Passage Saint-Guillaume, looking toward the rue de Richelieu, 1863-65.

Looking down the banks of the Bièvre River at the bottom of the rue des Gobelins (5th Arrondissement) in 1862.

Top of the rue Champlain in the 20th Arrondissement, 1877.

Here is a view of a spire of Notre Dame, facing Ile St. Louis.

Urinal in the 10th, 1876.

Rue de Constantine in 1866, before its demolition.

Impasse de la Bouteille from the rue Montorgueil, 1865–68.

The no-longer existing rue Estienne in the 1st Arrondissement, 1862-1865.

Near Arts et Métiers in 1864.

(via Charles Marville/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art)