Near the steps on Rue Atget. This is the only place that gives an idea of what the Butte aux Cailles was like in the 19th century: very steep slopes; we are standing on the limestone rock.

The defence of the Butte aux Cailles

Today, this is the only place that gives an idea of what the Butte-aux-Cailles was like in 1871: an elevated point, a hill with very steep slopes because we are standing on rock, the coarse limestone of Paris.

Wroblewski, as a true soldier, turned it into a strategic stronghold for the defence of Paris during the ‘Bloody Week’.

Walery Wroblewski: born in 1836 in Poland, he had been in exile in France since 1864 following the crushing of the uprising against Tsarist Russia. A member of the Union of Polish Democrats, he took part in the defence of Paris and the Commune. He was put in charge of the fortifications between Ivry and Arcueil. After the Commune, he managed to flee to London, joined the council of the IWA and spent his final days in Paris following the amnesty. He is buried at Père-Lachaise.

The fighting (24 and 25 May 1871)

The forces involved:

The Federates:

Wroblewski had three battalions at his disposal: 3,500 men, including the famous 101st, and several artillery batteries on the hill (one with eight guns and two with four). He had the Boulevards d’Italie (now Boulevard Blanqui), de l’Hôpital and de la Gare fortified. His headquarters were at Place d’Italie, and he had reserves at Place Jeanne d’Arc and in Bercy.

The Versaillais:

Opposite him, on the Versailles side, General Cissey commanded the 2nd Army Corps, comprising 23,000 men, fifty guns and machine guns. They set up batteries in the forts of Ivry and Bicêtre on 23 May after their capture.

On 24 May, the battle began with a fierce artillery duel between the Versaillais battery at Place d’Enfer and that of the Federates at Butte-aux-Cailles. In the afternoon, four successive attacks by the Versaillais troops failed; the fourth was even repelled, marking the only time the Versaillais retreated in this sector. During the night of 24–25 May, 300 Versaillais were repelled by a handful of Federates during an attempted attack to cross the ravine where the Rue des Peupliers now stands.

On the 25th, the general attack resumed from all sides. The Versaillais now had the advantage following the capture of the Panthéon, which exposed the right flank of the Butte. The Versailles troops advanced between Thiers’ fortifications and the Petite Ceinture railway line; they moved up the Avenue d’Italie and Avenue de Choisy under fire from the cannons and the federates’ gunfire from the barricades on the Place d’Italie. Versailles General Vinoy, arriving as reinforcements, advanced north of the Seine along Rue Saint-Antoine towards the Pont d’Austerlitz. On the south bank, they passed through the gardens of the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, thereby threatening the rear of Wroblewski, who, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, retreated to the Place d’Italie.

Versailles brigades also advanced along the Boulevards d’Arago and du Port-Royal towards Les Gobelins, which the federates set alight to cover their retreat. On the Place d’Italie, the situation became untenable. Wroblewski then withdrew to the entrenched camp at the Place Jeanne d’Arc. On the verge of being surrounded, he was once again forced to retreat, crossing the Pont d’Austerlitz with around a thousand men. The bridge was defended by a battery of cannons manned by the ‘Vengeurs de Flourens’: a volunteer corps made up of teenagers, three-quarters of whom would be massacred there (the remaining quarter of these teenagers would be killed on the barricades of Belleville). The remaining federates, near their homes, would be massacred or shot on the spot.

The capture of the Butte-aux-Cailles marked the end of the fighting on the left bank of the Seine. The fighting was over, but the inhabitants of the Butte had not yet seen the end of the horrors. Behind the line of Versailles fighters advanced troops, formed at Thiers’s request, who engaged in veritable terror campaigns: as in Montmartre and elsewhere, men, women, the elderly and children were massacred, whether or not they were suspected of having taken part in the Commune.

The Commune offered Wroblewski command of the federated troops remaining on the right bank; he refused due to a lack of fighters. He continued the struggle to the very end as a simple soldier.

The fighting continued, fierce and relentless, from barricade to barricade, all the way to the Père-Lachaise cemetery. The number of those killed in action, shot on the spot or executed after the fighting had ended, is estimated at at least 10,000 to 20,000, with some authors citing even higher figures.