Faubourg  

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Faubourg is an ancient French term approximating "suburb" (now generally termed banlieue). The earliest form is Forsbourg, derived from Latin foris, 'out of', and Vulgar Latin (originally Germanic) burgum, 'town' or 'fortress'. Traditionally, this name was given to an agglomeration forming around a throughway leading outwards from a city gate, and usually took the name of the same thoroughfare within the city. As cities were often located atop hills (for defensive purposes), their outlying communities were frequently lower down. Many faubourgs were located below their towns, and the term "suburbs" is derived from this tendency (sub = below; urbs = city).

Faubourgs are often considered the predecessor of European suburbs, from which they evolved generally in the 1950s and 60s. Although early suburbs still conserved some characteristics related to faubourgs (such as the back alleys with doors, little break margins for houses, etc.), later suburbs underwent major changes in their construction, primarily in terms of residential density.

Beside many French cities, the places faubourgs can still be found outside Europe include the province of Quebec, in Canada and the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The cities of Quebec and Montreal contain examples, although Montreal has far greater divergences in terms of "banlieue", which lead to similarities of many Ontarian and American suburbs.

Paris

Faubourgs were prominent in Paris during the first industrialization efforts of the early 19th century. The southern part of the Seine was an early expansion out of the city when the fortifications were demolished and relied heavily on horse trams. The Haussmannian Paris erased many traces of ancient faubourgs and the term banlieue was then coined.

Many Parisian streets have retained their ancient denomination in spite of city growth; today it is still possible to discern pre-1860 delimitations in Paris by marking the point where a thoroughfare's name changes from rue to rue du faubourg. For instance, the rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis used to be located outside of the city wall and was an extension of the rue Saint-Denis within the walls. The rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré came about in a similar manner.

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Faubourg" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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