Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centered on the intersection of the Boulevard de Montparnasse and the Boulevard Raspail. It is part of the XIVth arrondissement, having been absorbed into Paris along with other districts and villages in 1860.
The area also gives its name to:
- Gare de Montparnasse (trains to Brittany, TGV to Tours, Bordeaux.)
- Cimetiere de Montparnasse
- Tour Montparnasse
The name Montparnasse stems from the nickname "Mount Parnassus" given to the neighborhood in the 17th century by students who came there to recite poetry.
The hill was levelled to construct the Boulevard Montparnasse in the 18th century, and during the French Revolution many dance halls and cabarets opened their doors.
Like its counterpart, Montmartre, the neighborhood of Montparnasse became famous at the beginning of the 20th century when it was the heart of intellectual and artistic life in Paris with its legendary cafés: the Dôme, the Rotonde, the Coupole, and others.
Turn-of-the-century Montparnasse defined the term "starving artist" as virtually penniless painters, sculptors, writers, and poets came from around the world to thrive in the creative atomosphere and for the cheap rent. Living without running water, in damp, unheated "studios," many sold their works for a few francs just to buy food. Today, their works regularly sell in the millions of dollars. Just a few of the great minds that gathered in Montparnasse were:
Pablo Picasso, Paul Fort, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Amedeo Modigliani, Fernand Leger, Marc Chagall, Juan Gris, Man Ray, Chaim Soutine, Guillaume Apollinaire, Ossip Zadkine, Max Jacob, Tsuguharu Foujita, Ernest Hemingway, Léon-Paul Fargue, Alberto Giacometti, Andre Breton, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Henry Miller, Joan Miro and in his declining years, Edgar Degas.
While the area attracted people from all over the world who came to live and work in the creative and/or the bohemian environment, it also became home for political exiles such as Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
The quarter also contains the Institut Louis Pasteur, the ancient Catacombs of Paris and the Cimetiere de Montparnasse where many of these great artists are buried.