Concept
The Gare de l'Est (ɡaʁ də lɛst; English: "Station of the East" or "East station"), officially Paris-Est, is one of the six large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It is located in the 10th arrondissement, not far southeast from the Gare du Nord, facing the Boulevard de Strasbourg, part of the north–south axis of Paris created by Georges-Eugène Haussmann. Opened in 1849, it is currently the fifth-busiest of the six main railway stations in Paris before the Gare d'Austerlitz. The Gare de l'Est is the western terminus of the Paris–Strasbourg railway and Paris–Mulhouse railway which then proceeds to Basel, Switzerland. The Gare de l'Est was opened in 1849 by the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer de Paris à Strasbourg (Paris–Strasbourg Railway Company) under the name "Strasbourg platform" (Embarcadère de Strasbourg); an official inauguration with President Louis Napoléon Bonaparte took place the next year. The platform corresponds today with the hall for main-line trains. Designed by architect François Duquesnay, it was renamed the "Gare de l'Est" in 1854, after the expansion of service to Mulhouse. Renovations followed in 1885 and 1900, as part of Haussmann's renovation of Paris. In 1931, it was doubled in size, with the new part of the station built symmetrically with the old part. This transformation changed the surrounding neighbourhood significantly. At the top of the west facade of the Gare de l'Est is a statue by the sculptor Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire, representing the city of Strasbourg, while the east end of the station is crowned by a statue personifying Verdun, by Varenne. These two cities are important destinations serviced by Gare de l'Est. On 4 October 1883, the Gare de l'Est saw the first departure of the Orient Express for Istanbul. The Gare de l'Est is the terminus of a strategic railway network extending towards the eastern part of France, and it saw large mobilizations of French troops, most notably in 1914, at the beginning of World War I.
