Built originally as a fortified gate to protect Paris from the English in the late 1300s, it wasn’t until the 1600s that the Bastille became a prison. The first incarcerated there were mainly political or religious prisoners of King Charles VI. Other prisoners were there at the request of their family, usually wild young men or boys. Despite the reputation surrounding the prison, other prisons in France, such as the Bicetre in Paris, were far worse. By the time of its storming, the worst cells in the Bastille, reportedly infested with vermin and located in the lower dungeon were no longer used. In reality a prisoner could expect a room around 4.5m across and furnished with various items. These rooms were located in one of the eight towers which made up the prison, along with two courtyards and an armoury. The governor received a daily allowance per prisoner, the amount depending on social status and occupation, which determined the overall their level of comfort within the establishment.

It wasn’t until those imprisoned there were a result of the Louis XIV's (and subsequent King's) ‘lettres de cachet’ that the prison’s reputation crumbled. Lettres de cachet or Letter of the sign were documents, usually authorising somebody’s imprisonment, signed by the King and Secretary of State. During the 17th and 18th centuries these letters were so abused and used as a method of removing anybody displeasing to the King, that they received a poor name and their subsequent prisoners were, by most, considered innocent. It was around this time that the Bastille also became a symbol of the ancient ruling system in France and the King; the same system that would be removed in the French Revolution. It was for this reason that the Bastille was targeted by the revolutionaries and its storming became the start of the French Revolution.

The crowd that approached the Bastille on the morning of 14th July were not intending to take the prison. They knew that the prison had an armoury and wanted the Governor to release the arms and gunpowder. There were few guards in the prison (around 30 Swiss guards and 80 wounded soldiers), so the warden invited two representatives into the Prison to negotiate, while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. The crowd of around 1000 waiting outside became restless with the slow negotiations and decided to end matters around mid-afternoon. Already in possession of some arms, the crowd surged into the prison, releasing the prisoners kept there. Disappointingly, there were only seven inmates, four counterfeiters, two madmen and one young trouble maker. 98 attackers and 1 defender were killed; mutinous French soldiers within the mob stepped in to protect the Swiss guards and invalids. However, the defender's commander and the prison governor were both killed by the mob that night.

Louis XVI wrote in his diary for the 14th July 1789: ‘nothing.’ He obviously didn’t see the events in Paris as the start of his downfall or the signing of his death warrant. What started as riots and the storming of an empty prison, became a full scale revolution. (The potential for a revolution was already there before the Bastille, the Bastille therefore cannot be acclaimed with causing the revolution). The storming of the Bastille had brought down the notorious symbol of the French monarchy and so encouraged the revolutionaries to continue.

The storming had also shown how propaganda and public perception could be far from the truth. The people of Paris had little idea of the reality of life in the Bastille. This is by no means the only instance in history when this occurs, but it also questions, what else were they wrong about?

Despite many people visiting the empty Batille and believing it a memorial, the buildings were demolished shortly after the storming. Much of the rubble was given out as souvenirs and by November little remained. A memorial was eventually built on the site in the form of a large column and to this day Bastille Day, the 14th July, is a French national holiday celebrating its independence from the Monarchy.