Island

île de la Cité

Île de la Cité is the island in the Seine where Paris begins, and its history reaches back to the Parisii, the Celtic tribe believed to have settled here in the 3rd century BC. Long before the city spread outward, this small island became the core of Roman Lutetia, and later the political and spiritual center of medieval Paris. That layered past still makes sense of the place today: Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle both belong to this compact strip of land, where royal, religious, and civic power once sat almost side by side. What’s striking is how much of Paris grew around this one island. The name itself, Île de la Cité, points to its role as the old city, the original urban nucleus before Paris expanded across both banks. Even now, it feels less like a district than a historical starting point, where the city’s oldest chapter remains embedded in stone and river. …
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