Brewer's: Bastille

means simply a building (French, bastir, now bâtir, to build). Charles V. built it as a royal château; Philippe-Auguste enclosed it with a high wall; St. Louis administered justice in the park, under the oak-trees; Philippe de Valois demolished the old château and commenced a new one; Louis XI. first used it as a state prison; and it was demolished by the rabble in the French Revolution, July 14th, 1789.

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