At the junction of rue de la Bonne and rue des Rosiers (now part of rue du Chevalier-de-la-Barre) was one of the main defensive points on the Butte Montmartre during the Paris Commune. As the image below shows, this very narrow passageway was defended by a single cannon, holding this strategic sector against the advance of Versailles troops in May 1871.

What's more...

While we don't need to go there, as it would mean a long and difficult diversions, let's take advantage of the park benches to talk briefly about two or three other interesting spots linked to the history of the Commune in Montmartre. To see where they are, take a look at the map below.

Béatrix Excoffon (1849 - 1916)

Born Julia Euvrie in Cherbourg.

In 1871, she was vice-president of the boule noire club.

She helped set up the Montmartre Vigilance Committee. And on 3 April 1871, Béatrix Excoffon took part in a women's march to Versailles, where the National Assembly had taken refuge. She then set up a flying ambulance at the fort d'Issy where Alix Payen joined her.

During the bloody week Béatrix Excoffon defended the Place Blanche on a barricade on 23 May 1871 with Élisabeth Dmitrieff, Nathalie Le Mel, Blanche Lefebvre and Malvina Poulain also an ambulance driver. 120 women held up General Clinchant's troops before withdrawing, exhausted and running out of ammunition, Place Pigalle.

She was first imprisoned at Satory along with Louise Michel, then to the Auberive central prison. She was released in 1878.

Eugène Pottier (1816-1887)

The cloth designer and militant poet Eugène Pottier, a member of the AIT and a member of the executive committee of the Federation of Artists of the Commune, went into hiding after the bloody week at 80 rue Myrha, at the eastern foot of the Butte Montmartre, where he wrote the text of the revolutionary song "L'Internationale" in June 1871, probably to the music of "La Marseillaise", since the current world-famous music was not written until 1888 by the Belgian Pierre Degeyter. The USSR used it as its national anthem from 1922 to 1944.

Jaroslaw Dombrowski (Dąbrowski 1836 - 1871)

On 23 May 1871, during Bloody Week, the Polish-born general Jaroslaw Dombrowski, a major figure in the defence of the Commune, was mortally wounded at the junction of rue Myrha and boulevard Barbès, at the foot of a barricade defended by his staff and a cosmopolitan brigade. He was preparing to organise a counter-offensive against the Versailles troops. Hit by a bullet, he was taken unconscious to the Hôtel de Ville, where he died a few hours later, aged just thirty-five. Dombrowski's death was a decisive blow to the morale and organisation of the last remaining Commune fighters, at a time when fighting was raging in the north of Paris. Pottier took refuge in the building next door after the bloody week.

NB: Near rue Myrha, at 26 rue de Clignancourt, were the Dufayel department stores, whose monumental pediment, decorated with a bas-relief by Jules Dalou, the famous Communard sculptor, can still be seen.