Les Propylées de Paris

Les Propylées de Paris were built in 1784 after the commission of the Ferme Générale, the body responsible for collecting custom duties, and it was architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to receive the task of designing the custom system that would surround Paris. The name Propylées comes from the Propylaea of Athens, the Greek Doric building complex that functioned as the monumental ceremony gateway to the Acropolis of Athens. Les Propylées were a system meant to control and collect the octroi duty; the wall was 3,50 meters high, and it was more than 22 kilometres long, while also incorporating the custom duty gates. It was only in 1785 that the construction work began, all in total secrecy and urgency. In 1789, the work was interrupted and Ledoux was dismissed, the high cost and the too-modern, majestic structures being the causes. Despite the controversies, the work was completed, and in 1790 the duty wall came into operation. After the destructions of the French Revolution and the demolition of the duty wall in 1860, only four of the tool booths that marked the entrance to the main streets of Paris remained.