Paris is a city built on hills, and Montmartre is its steepest one. Its narrow lanes climb sharply toward a white basilica perched above the rooftops. In 1900, the city solved a very human problem: no one wanted to climb up hundreds of stone steps just to get to a church. So it built a shortcut. The Montmartre funicular opened on 12 July 1900, according to RATP, the Paris transport authority that runs the line, though some historical accounts put the date a day later, on 13 July. The little railway was built to help visitors reach the Basilica of the Sacré-Coeur, whose construction had begun in 1875 and was still years from completion.
A shortcut older than the metro itself
