Percement de l'avenue de l'Opéra: Butte des Moulins (Construction of the avenue de l'Opéra: Butte des Moulins)

The Butte des Moulins (“windmill hill”) was a small hill—part natural, part built up—that had existed in Paris since ancient times. Dotted with windmills, the working-class neighborhood was dominated by small trades until the mid-1870s, when its population was cleared and the hill was leveled to construct the avenue de l’Opéra, which would become celebrated as the most glamorous street in Paris.