The old Montmartre from ancient times from 18861890 :

The Montmartre district covers the hill of the Montmartre hillock, or is located the summit of the capital: 130.53 meters. The law of June 16th, 1859 annexed the commune of Montmartre to Paris, from which a part was allotted to the commune of SaintOuen.

Toponymy is attached to Mons Martis — “mount of Mars” —, a temple dedicated to Mars, god of the war, at the time gallo Roman or in Mons Martyrum, the “mount of the Martyrs”, the holy Christian Denis was decapitated there with two other coreligionists, Rustic and Éleuthère.

As of the years 1860, the district of Montmartre, which was not that a vast field evolves following great work of the baron Haussmann.
The Parisians who are without the penny are driven out center of Paris and then come to find refuge in what will become the Maquis of Montmartre.
The inhabitants were mainly scrap merchants and ragpickers. One crossed there as robbers, come to hide (from where the nickname of “maquis”) in the labyrinthian lanes of the district and the street urchins, as one called the “Apache ones commonly”.
In spite of appearances, Montmartre thus had more the heart of a village that of a slum. In spite of poverty, the insecurity and the lack of hygiene, all this small world constituted a socially organized, interdependent and linked community.

In 1871, the Commune of Paris started in Montmartre, after the will of Adolphe Thiers and his government to recover the 171 guns of the National guard which were then stationed in the district.
These are the events which brought the construction of the Sacred Heart at the same time in thanksgivings for France and is sorry for the Commune.

The Hillock then will attract and inspire the artists. Of Van Gogh with Renoir via Utrillo, Pissaro, Cézanne, Monnet, Apollinaire, Modigliani, Toulouse lautrec, Steinlen, Sisley, Degas, Suzanne Valadon Nerval, Murger, Picasso, Urchin, Tristan Tzara, or Hector Berlioz.

The circles of poets formed groups of coffee from where songs, poems, drawings and paintings spouted out. It is the time of the cabarets and the coffees with the opened MoulinRouge in 1889 painted by ToulouseLautrec where occurred singers and dancers such Yvette Guilbert, the Greedy one (creative of the Cancan), Boned Valentine.

I invite you to discover this world photographed at the end of the years 1880 by Henri Daudet for the Company of History and Archaeology of the old Montmartre.