Montmartre’s steep streets and gardens preserve traces of a former village absorbed into Paris. Its working landscapes, artists’ studios, political memory and living neighborhood culture reach well beyond the Sacré-Cœur.
Quick facts
The former commune of Montmartre was annexed to Paris on 1 January 1860, alongside La Chapelle.
Residents and the municipality replanted the Clos Montmartre vineyard in 1933 to save a plot from development.
The first Montmartre harvest festival took place in 1934, before the new vines could yield their own grapes.
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Montmartre is easiest to recognize by its steep streets, but its identity reaches well beyond the famous white basilica at the summit. Here, “Montmartre” means the historic Butte and the adjoining streets of Paris’s 18th arrondissement: the slopes and lanes around Abbesses, Lamarck-Caulaincourt and the old hilltop village. It is a cultural and historical district, not the whole 18th arrondissement and not a single modern administrative unit with one universally agreed boundary.
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Sacré-Cœur Basilica
Sacré-Cœur Basilica rises above Montmartre as both an active Catholic sanctuary and a landmark shaped by France’s contested nineteenth-century history. Its Romano-Byzantine domes, donor-funded construction, and monumental mosaic reward close attention.
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