The Storming of the Bastille<span> (</span>French<span>: </span>Prise de la Bastille [pʁiz də la bastij]<span>) occurred in </span>Paris<span>, </span>France<span>, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval </span>fortress<span>, </span>armory<span>, and </span>political prison<span> in Paris known as the </span>Bastille<span> represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuses of power; its fall was the </span>flashpoint<span> of the </span>French Revolution<span>.</span>
