The Bastille became the focus of the opening of the French Revolution. Why?

The Bastille became the focus of the opening of the French Revolution. Why? The Bastille had been transformed from being used as a military fortress to protect the Eastern wall of Paris in the 14th Century to it's less imposing role as a prison by the 17th Century . The walls were over eighty feet high and it held weapons arsenals from its glory days as a military fortress . Acting under King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu …

…to a radical republic. Bibliography Jones, Colin. The Cambridge Illustrated History of France. Cambridge University Press, 1994. Lecture Notes: History 201: From 10/3/05 at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Rude, G. (1970) Paris and London in the 18th Century: Studies in Popular Protest, London: Collins Schama, 'Buried Alive? Myths and Realities in the Bastille' from Citizens, 1989 Thompson, Steve, (2003) Area of Study Summary Notes: The French Revolution, from http://vcehistory.info/france/pdf/france-summary.pdf, Accessed on the 27th of March