La Défense
摘要
La Défense is a district in the Île-de-France, three kilometres west of the centre of Paris.1 It takes its name from a sculpture by Louis-Ernest Barrias erected in 1883, La défense de Paris, in memory of the soldiers who defended the city in the Franco-German war a decade earlier. The bronze sculpture consists of three patriotic figures executed in an Art Nouveau or “Jugend” style. It now contrasts sharply with the office landscape and commercial centre that is today’s La Défense. The neighbourhood’s history only began in 1958, when a decision was made to try to revive the old neighbourhood of factories, farms and substandard housing.