Two doors on Place Jean-Baptiste Clement, Montmartre

Jean-Baptiste Clément (1836-1903), a singer, was “Mayor of Montmartre” during the heady 70 days of the 1871 Commune, when this area actually seceded from Paris.

The Commune (La Commune de Paris) was a socialistic government that briefly ruled Paris from the middle of March 1871. Though elected as the city council, the Commune eventually proclaimed its own authority to govern all of France.  Its controversial governance and its break with the elected government of France led to its brutal suppression by regular French troops in “The Bloody Week” (la Semaine sanglante) in May 1871.  The Communards  set up barricades in the streets and burned public buildings (among them the Tuileries Palace and the Hôtel de Ville) in an attempt to defend their position, but the regular troops won, with around 20,000 insurrectionists and 750 government troops killed in the process.  In the aftermath of the Commune, the government took harsh repressive action: about 38,000 were arrested and more than 7,000 were deported.

When Clément was buried in the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise on 26  February  1903 , between four and five thousand people attended the ceremony.  The city of Paris later named a square in Montmartre in his honour and that is where these two fine, green doors stand.

Linked to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Two and Delirious Doors.