Val-de-Grâce in Paris in Département de Paris, Île-de-France, France — Western Europe
L’Ecole Normale Supérieure
— Histoire de Paris —
Photographed By Andrew Ruppenstein, June 26, 2023
1. L’Ecole Normale Supérieure Marker
Inscription.
Initialement fondée par un décret du 9 Brumaire an III (30 octobre 1794), la première Ecole normale, destinée à recevoir "de toutes les parties de la République des citoyens déjà instruits dans les sciences utiles pour apprendre, sous les professeurs les plus habiles dans tous les genres, l'art d'enseigner", tient alors au Jardin des plantes un trimestre de cours. Napoléon 1er reprend l'idée lors de la réorganisation de l'Université, et installe en 1810 les élèves dotés d'un règlement d'inspiration militaire au Lycée impérial (Louis-le-Grand). Figure la plus marquante de cette première promotion, Victor Cousin, devenu ministre de l'Instruction publique, demande à l'architecte A. de Gisors les plans d'un édifice à la sobriété monacale: sur d'anciennes vignes du couvent des Ursulines, la nouvelle Ecole est achevée en 1847. Depuis, ce "noble cloître intellectuel", selon le mot de Romain Rolland, cultive toujours "le don magnifique que fait à des jeunes gens choisis l'enseignement démocratique".,
Initialement fondée par un décret du 9 Brumaire an
III (30 octobre 1794), la première Ecole normale,
destinée à recevoir "de toutes les parties de la
République des citoyens déjà instruits dans les
sciences utiles pour apprendre, sous les professeurs les plus habiles dans tous les genres, l'art
d'enseigner", tient alors au Jardin des plantes
un trimestre de cours. Napoléon 1er reprend
l'idée lors de la réorganisation de l'Université,
et installe en 1810 les élèves dotés d'un
règlement d'inspiration militaire au Lycée
impérial (Louis-le-Grand). Figure la plus
marquante de cette première promotion,
Victor Cousin, devenu ministre de l'Instruction publique, demande à l'architecte
A. de Gisors les plans d'un édifice à
la sobriété monacale: sur d'anciennes
vignes du couvent des Ursulines,
la nouvelle Ecole est achevée en
1847. Depuis, ce "noble cloître
intellectuel", selon le mot de
Romain Rolland, cultive toujours "le don magnifique
que fait à des jeunes gens choisis l'enseignement démocratique".
(English translation:)
Initially founded by a decree of 9 Brumaire Year III (October
Click or scan to see this page online
30, 1794), the first Normal School, intended to receive "from all parts of the Republic citizens already instructed in the sciences useful for learning, under the most skilful teachers in all genres, the art of teaching", then held a quarter of classes at the Jardin des Plantes. Napoleon I took up the idea during the reorganization of the University, and in 1810 installed students under military-inspired regulations at the Imperial High School (Louis-le-Grand). The most outstanding figure of this first promotion, Victor Cousin, who had become Minister of Public Instruction, asked the architect A. de Gisors for the plans of a building with monastic sobriety: upon the foundations of the Ursuline convent, the new School was completed in 1847. Since then, this "noble intellectual cloister", in the words of Romain Rolland, has always cultivated "the magnificent gift given to young people chosen by democratic education".
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Education. In addition, it is included in the Histoire de Paris series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1810.
Location. 48° 50.525′ N, 2° 20.652′ E. Marker is in Paris, Île-de-France, in Département de Paris. It is in Val-de-Grâce. Marker is on Rue d'Ulm, on the right when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 45 Rue d'Ulm, Paris, Île-de-France 75005, France. Touch for directions.
Excerpts: Originally conceived during the French Revolution, the school was founded in 1794 to provide homogeneous training of high-school teachers in France but it later closed. The school was subsequently reestablished by Napoleon I as pensionnat normal from 1808 to 1822, before being recreated in 1826 and taking the name of École normale in 1830. When institutes for primary teachers training called écoles normales were created in 1845, the word supérieure (meaning upper) was added to form the current name. It has since developed into an institution which has become a platform for French students to pursue careers in government and academia.
Its alumni include 14 Nobel
Photographed By Heliotypie E. Le Deley, Paris, circa 1902
3. L’Ecole Normale, Rue D’Ulm
Prize laureates (ENS has the highest proportion of Nobel laureates among its alumni of any institution worldwide), of which 8 are in Physics, 12 Fields Medalists, more than half the recipients of the CNRS's Gold Medal (France's highest scientific prize) and several hundred members of the Institut de France, and scores of politicians and statesmen. The school has achieved particular recognition in the fields of mathematics and physics as one of France's foremost scientific training grounds, along with international notability in the human sciences as the spiritual birthplace of authors such as Julien Gracq, Jean Giraudoux, Assia Djebar, and Charles Péguy, philosophers such as Henri Bergson, Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Althusser, Simone Weil, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Alain Badiou, social scientists such as Émile Durkheim, Raymond Aron, and Pierre Bourdieu, and "French theorists" such as Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. The school's students are often referred to as normaliens.
(Submitted on July 31, 2023.)
Credits. This page was last revised on July 31, 2023. It was originally submitted on July 31, 2023, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California. This page has been viewed 50 times since then and 9 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3. submitted on July 31, 2023, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
