Set on a hill 130 meters high, the area of Montmartre looks grandly out over all of Paris. The name "Montmartre" comes from "Mont des Martyrs" (the bishop St. Denis, the priest Rustique, and the archdeacon Eleuthère were all decapitated there around the year 250). In the 12th century, Benedictine monks built a monastery near Rue des Abesses. It later became
the seat of a powerful abbey.

The Montmartre area was the center of a lot of activity during the Paris Commune in 1871. Despite the resistance of the people of Montmartre, the area remained under Federal control from March 18 until May 23.

The end of the 19th century saw Montmartre to be the center of artistic life in Paris and the model of a free, bohemian existence. Many artists, from Berlioz to Picasso, lived, worked, and played here. These creative spirits (and their café, the Lapin Agile) helped keep this area the city's intellectual and artistic center up until the first World War.