Belleville (commune)
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Belleville was a French commune (municipality) in the Seine département lying immediately east of Paris, France. It was one of four communes entirely annexed by the city of Paris in 1860. Its territory is now shared by the XIXe arrondissement and XXe arrondissement, but a neighborhood has retained its name: the quartier de Belleville. The village was built on and around a hill, the second highest of the French capital after Montmartre.
[edit] History
The area was inhabited for many years by people who worked the local quarries, vintners and other merchants.
A commune was created in 1789. Its name is derived from belle vue (literally "beautiful view") and its territory extended to what is today the Buttes-Chaumont park and the Père-Lachaise cemetery.
The population increased dramatically in the first half of the nineteenth century and Baron Haussmann decided to incorporate it into Paris.
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