History
The rue de la Harpe below its twist to the west at the rue Saint-Séverin, dates from Roman times. Leaving Lutèce's (Roman Paris') main north-south thoroughfare just below the Petit-Pont it turned south to become a roadway parallel to the first known as the "via inferior" ("lower road"). Before it was cut short below the Boulevard Saint-Germain by the construction of the Boulevard Saint-Michel from 1859, it continued under more or less the same name until Paris' former 12th-century ''Porte Saint-Michel" gate at the corner of today's rue Soufflot and Boulevard Saint-Michel. The rue de la Harpe's 'newer' westward twist above the rue Saint-Séverin owes its existence to first a "bac" footbridge crossing the river from its end, then the construction of the first version of the pont Saint-Michel from 1378.
Read more about this topic: Rue De La Harpe
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“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
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