It is time now to move to another type of heritage – our architectural heritage, specifically buildings belonging to the nineteenth and twenties centuries.
The architectural heritage of Cairo is very much related to that of Paris. After the French revolution at the late eighteenth century, Paris passed through a series of crisis which lead Emperor Napoleon III in 1852 to redevelop it. Until then, Paris was made of small, narrow streets which made it easy to build barricades and foment trouble.
At the same time, that was urban redevelopment in other European Capitals like Vienna and Brussels. Napoleon III started his second republic with a plan to redevelop Paris and provide it with new wide roads (boulevards). He appointed le Baron Haussmann Governor of Paris and he remained in office from 1853 to 1876.
It was the Barron Haussmann who reconstructed Paris we know today. He came up with various codes and regulations, limiting the height of the buildings to six floors. Some of his specifications were very interesting, for example the fact that the balconies on the second and fifth floors should run right round the building, while the flats on the other floors had separate balconies.
Paris became known for its circular squares that have many streets or boulevards radiating from them. The best example is Place de l’Etoile because it looks like a star shining with several beams (the streets radiating from it).
The Baron also created several gardens in the heart of the city, for example the Luxembourg Garden, as well as vast green areas outside the city, like the beautiful Bois de Boulogne.
That was about the time Khedive Ismail came to power. He was appointed in 1863 when Egypt was involved in digging the Suez Canal which would be completed in 1869. Since the Khedive was aware of what was going on in Europe and he was preparing for the inauguration of the Suez Canal, he had to renovate Cairo in order to receive the VIPs.
The Khedive decided to visit Paris in 1867 on his way to Istanbul. It was a good chance for him to observe the urban development of Paris. During his visit he met with the Baron Haussmann, who suggested he hire two French architects to help develop Cairo. Those were Barillet de Champs, landscape specialist, and P. Grand, a specialist in infrastructure engineering. They were appointed under the Minister of Public Works of Ali Pasha Mubarak in 1868.
It was therefore no coincidence that the new-look Cairo which extended from Khalig Street (now Port Said street) to the banks of the Nile was very similar to Paris; it had circular squares like Talaat Harb and Mostafa Kamel, as well as a central park which is El-Ezbekiya and peripheral gardens – Giza Zoo and the Orman Park.
Like Paris, the buildings had to be no more than six floors high, with continuous balconies on the second and fifth floors. And of course the buildings were more or less the same design as those of Paris. It was appropriately called “Little Paris”.
