Paris’ area #5 is the oldest one in the city; it covers the largest part of the Latin Quarter built by Romans. It is on the left bank of the Seine.
The old lanes of the Latin Quarter are now full of restaurants, fast food restaurants, prêt-à-porter shops. There is still the animation due to the student movement inherited from the Middle-Age in cafés, book shops and in the many ciné-clubs. The Latin Quarter was crossed by two traditions, i.e the religious and the university one. In the 6th century Clovis commissioned the building of a sanctuary belonging at first to the Saint Geneviève abbey.
In the 12th century the Saint Victor abbey was built. Many religious communities settled in the nearby of those two abbeys. The intellectual tradition dates back to the 12th century; its first demonstrations came from some of the city’s dissidents, since the Chancellor of Notre-Dame ordered some constraints monitoring education. Therefore many masters like Abélard must live outside the Chancellor’s power place to teach in stables in Saint Geneviève mountain.
In 1215 the Pope gave the University its statues. The Church holds and spread knowledge and people studied in Latin language. Students started at the age of 14 approaching grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Then they could also study law, theology or medicine. In 1250 about 60 boarding schools were built, with 700 people studying there. The most popular one was founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon which was rebuilt during the 13th century.
In 1530 several area intellectual institutions started to be founded, such as France boarding school and the Observatory, the great schools in the days of the Revolution and the great university institutes under Napoleon.