Fall of the Bastille

What Actually Happened on the Original Bastille Day

On the afternoon of July 14, 1789, Parisian rebels, many of which were artisans, stormed the Bastille — a fortress and prison that, at the time, housed only seven prisoners. The rebels did not intend to free the prisoners, but instead they wanted to get the ammunition that were stored within the building. Symbolically, the Bastille, as a political prison, represented the authoritarianism and tyranny of the monarchy. Many people consider this event to be the start of the French Revolution.

Below, watch a reenactment of the events of July 14, 1789, taken from the 1935 movie A Tale of Two Cities, based on Charles Dickens' novel of the same name.