Place de la concorde

The place de la Concorde, with 8.64 hectares, is the largest square in Paris. The name would have been chosen by the Management Board to mark the reconciliation of the French after the excesses of the terror.

Location

Located on the right bank, in the 8th district, at the foot of the Champs-Elysées, it connects them, leading up to the Northwest, to the garden of the Tuileries that extend to the Southeast. Via the Royale street, it opens in the North on the Madeleine and to the South by the Concorde bridge which crosses the Seine to the 7th District, in the Bourbon Palace. Administratively, the square itself is located in the District of the Champs-Elysées, which is the eastern end. But the two buildings that border the North and part of the Royale street, in the District of Madeleine, still in the 8th arrondissement, while the Tuileries garden that adjoins it is located in the District of Saint-Germain - l'Auxerrois in the 1st arrondissement.

Close to the center of Paris, the place occupies a privileged position, because it punctuates two major axes:

• The North-South axis formed by Montmartre, the boulevard Haussmann department stores, the Madeleine Church and the National Assembly.
• West-east axis - is formed by the Arch of Defense, the Arc de triomphe, the Champs-Elysées avenue, the garden of the Tuileries and the Louvre Museum.

Description

This monumental complex is the most important creation of the enlightenment in terms of urban planning, in the capital. It expresses a privileged moment in the evolution of the French taste: one who sees towards the middle of the 18th century, the decline of the Rococo style, and the birth of a new classicism whose architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, and Edme Bouchardon, the sculptor of the statue of Louis XV erected in the center of place and destroyed during the Revolution, are among the pioneers.

Its denomination has changed many times, reflecting the instability of the political regimes of France since 1789 and a joyous series, tragic and glorious events, some far-reaching historical significance, which took place on its soil. It is called place Louis XV, then place de la Revolution after August 10, 1792, the place de la Concorde under the directory, the Consulate and the Empire, again place Louis XV then place Louis XVI under the restoration, The Charter in 1830, to finally take over under the place name finally under the July monarchy the place de la Concorde. Similarly, the monuments that adorned or should have decorated its center: equestrian statue of Louis XV, statue of liberty, statue of Louis XVI, Obelisk of Luxor.

 

Amenities, modest under the Revolution (installation of the horses of Marly in 1794), were important under the July monarchy (in 1836, erection of the obelisk, Hittorff beautification works: two fountains, statues of the eight main cities in France (eight "matrons" dressed in Greek and crowned with towers, their bases housing officials and their families until the erection of the statues)) the streetlights and rostral columns). The Second Empire abolished the ditches to improve circulation. The last development in terms of the architecture was in 1931 the disappearance of the hotel Grimod de la Reynière, built in 1775 in compliance with the order of Gabriel, but disfigured over time by successive additions, and its replacement by the Embassy of the United States in respect of the original project. Since 1937, no significant change can no longer affect the place which is classified. A final embellishment in 1998, at the initiative of the Egyptologist Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, the implementation of the Golden pyramidion of Obelisk.

History

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, it was only a surrounded esplanade, half of a ditch that was used as a store for the marbles and communicated by a barrier, a post of gabelle and the port with the marbles. Two major sewer discovered across both ends of this land, a flowing in the ditch of the Tuileries, the other along the Champs-Elysees.

The city of Paris, in the person of his aldermen and the Provost of the merchants, decided in 1748, to erect an equestrian statue of Louis XV to celebrate the restoration of the King after the illness of which he was attacked in Metz. A contest was held to find the best location, competition involving nineteen architects including, Germain Boffrand, Gabriel de Lestrade and Jacques-Germain Soufflot. One of them, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, offers to retain a simple esplanade of clay, without function, without drawing, which is located at the end of the garden of the Tuileries, and called "esplanade of the turned bridge (in French: esplanade du Pont-Tournant) ", in reference to a wooden bridge which spans the gap then along the Tuileries terrace. Although it is off-center, this place can be used for the urbanization of the new districts, which tend to be built towards the West of the capital, in the faubourg Saint-Honoré.

 

The King owns most of the lands, which allows it to limit the necessary expropriations. Even Before the decision was officially made, negotiations were initiated with the heirs of John Law, land owners, encroached on the site necessary for the creation of a royal square in the vast area A network of royal squares going to Rennes, Rouen, Bordeaux, Dijon, Nantes and Montpellier, dramatize the equestrian representation of Louis XV. Spaces of parade for the statue, these places develop a principle that will stay in Paris, very open, because it fits into a pristine area of urbanization. Valued by the facades designed by Gabriel, the place Louis XV became an architectural interlude between the trees of the Tuileries and the Champs Elysees green escape.

 

In 1753, a competition was open for the development of the esplanade, reserved for members of the Royal Academy of architecture. Gabriel, Director of the Academy in his capacity as the King’s first architect, was responsible for establishing a project using the best ideas by competitors. With the support of Madame de Pompadour, who will oversee all the work, his project was accepted in 1755. The agreement between the city of Paris, the representatives of the King, and the heirs of Law in 1758. In Exchange for the land they gave, the heirs will receive the building located in the Northwest of the square along with the land to build on the future Royal Street. They are willing to pay for the construction of the facades of all the buildings they own and accept the easement of public galleries on the site.

Started by Edme Bouchardon, and completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, the equestrian statue of Louis XV was inaugurated on the 20^th of June 1763. It was placed at the center of the esplanade, facing the East, at the intersection of the axis of the new Royal Street, which connects San Francisco to the Seine, and the axis of the Tuileries garden and the Champs Elysees avenue. The King is dressed in a Roman style, wearing a ponytail and crowned with laurels. The pedestal, by Jean-François - Thérèse Chalgrin, is decorated with bas-reliefs, and at every angle, of a bronze statue evoking the King’s virtues: the strength, Justice, Prudence, and peace. As the monarch became widely unpopular at the time of the inauguration of the statue.

Ah! the beautiful statue, ah! the beautiful pedestal,

The virtues are on foot and vice on horseback.

On the 30^th of May 1770, the square was the scene of a dramatic event: while a firework display was made in honor of the dauphin marriage and the Marie-Antoinette Archduchess of Austria, 133 people were killed trampled and smothered in a panic caused by a fire triggered by the fall of a rocket.

It was not until 1772 that the place was completed. An octagonal enclosure, with a balustrade, lined with ditches of 20 meters wide and surrounded by guerrillas, was created to enclose this vast space. Only the north side of the square is built, which give view of the Seine. However, A part of the program was never achieved: for example, Gabriel had planned to overcome the sentry boxes of sculpted group representing trophies, and to create two fountains on each side of the statue; In addition, two large buildings in the North of the square were to be framed, slightly indented, by two smaller and identical hotels. The place is named place Louis XV. In 1776, the interior space is divided into four compartments of grass surrounded by barriers painted green.

In 1789, the architect Bernard Poyet offers to the King Louis XV an arrangement of the square with the construction of buildings in the four corners of the square. Opera had been installed in the building of the Northeast, but this project was not on.

Revolution

At the time of the French Revolution, the square was the place of passage for convoys, whether improvised or ritualized by the Protocol Parties. it will be one of the great places of gathering in the revolutionary period, especially when the guillotine will be installed there. It is also where Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were executed.

As early as July 12, 1789, the busts of Jacques Necker and Philippe d ' Orléans were exhibited there; the prince of Lambesc and his Dragoons charge the protesters. The next day, the crowd plunders weapons of the storage unit (located in the Northeast building) to "go to the Bastille. On 6 October, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and the dauphin (future Louis XVII), brought back from Versailles to Paris by the people, make their entry to the Palace of the Tuileries across the Louis XV square.

On the 11^th of August 1792, after the abolition of the monarchy, the equestrian statue of Louis XV was thrown down from its pedestal and sent to the cast iron. On this occasion, the place Louis XV was renamed Revolution Square (place de la Révolution). On the 10^th of August 1793, on the pedestal, which remained empty for a year, the old statue of Louis XV was erected, a statue of the liberty by François-Frédéric Lemot, plaster effigy representing liberty wearing a Red cap and holding a stick in the right hand. it was withdrawn in June 1800.

The guillotine is moved from the place du Carrousel to decapitate some of the thieves of the Blue Diamond of the Crown. She comes, but tentatively, in October 1792, for execution of the thieves of the Crown jewels in the storage. it reappeared from time to time on the 21^st of January 1793 for the execution of Louis XVI; unique case where it was erected in the West room, halfway between the central pedestal and the entrance to the Champs-Elysées. Finally, on the 11^th of May 1793, it settled there permanently, to remain there until June 9, 1794, the eve of the introduction of the law of 22 Prairial year II establishing 'the Great terror', and this time to the East of the square, between the Center and the entrance to the garden of the Tuileries. Of the 2 498-people guillotined in Paris during the Revolution, 1 119 are place de la Révolution. They, in addition to Louis XVI, includes the names of Marie-Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, madame Roland, the Girondins, Philippe d ' Orléans, Madame Du Barry, Danton, Malesherbes and Lavoisier will be remembered.

After staying four-day at place Antoine (now the place de la Bastille), the guillotine was transferred on the 13^th of June 1794, place du Trône-renversé (place de la Nation) and only returned to place de la Révolution for the execution of Maximilien de Robespierre and his friends (10 thermidor year II - 28 July 1794). On the 30^th of July 1794, the guillotine was brought back to place de Greve, which was its original location between April 25 and August 21, 1792.

Moreover, the so-called Marly horses, the work of Guillaume Coustou, were installed at the entrance of the Champs-Elysées in 1795.

October 25, 1795, the last day of the Convention and the eve of the establishment of the Management Board, the Government decided to rename place de la Révolution to place de la Concorde (Concorde square).

19th century

Marked by bloody terror and execution of the Royal family, the place de Concorde posed a political problem for Governments of the 19th century. The statue of liberty was withdrawn under the Consulate, and plans to build a statue of Charlemagne, then a fountain, have been abandoned, it was finally Louis XVIII, who plans to build in the center of the square, a monument to the memory of his brother Louis XVI: the statue of the King martyr, framed by a chapel and a weeping willow. Charles X laid the cornerstone on the 3^rd of May 1826. The same year, the place de la Concorde was renamed place Louis XVI (registration was still visible at the corner of rue Boissy d’Anglas until recently). But the projected statue will never be elevated, interrupted by the revolution of July 1830, which restores instead its definitive name of place de la Concorde.

In 1831, the viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, the France offers the two obelisks that mark the entrance to the Temple of Luxor in Thebes. Only the first of them will be transported to the France and will arrive in Paris on December 21, 1833. Louis-Philippe who decides to erect it on the Concorde square where "he won't call back any political event." The operation, true technical prowess, is performed on October 25, 1836, under the direction of the engineer of the Navy Apollinaire Lebas, in presence of more than 200,000 people. The King and the Royal family, uncertain of the success of the operation, have preferred to attend since the storage hall salons, not appearing on the balcony to gather the applause of the crowd at the precise moment where the monolith stands upright.

 

Between 1836 and 1846, the place was transformed by the architect Jacques - Ignace Hittorff who retains the principle devised by Gabriel. It adds two fountains (which have the audacity to be in cast iron) monumental on both sides of the obelisk and girdles the streetlights place and rostral columns. The Square is thus a celebration of naval engineering of France, in reference to the presence, in one of the two hotels built by Gabriel, of the Navy Department. The two fountains – was inaugurated on the 1^st of May 1840, by the prefect Rambuteau - celebrate the Riverboat (North fountain with figures representing the Rhine and the Rhône and the harvest of grapes and wheat) and maritime (South fountain, with the Mediterranean, the Ocean and fisheries). For the realization of the statues adorning these fountains, the architect appeal to many artists: Jean-François - Théodore Gechter, honored Jean Aristide Husson, François Lanno, Nicolas Brion, Auguste-Hyacinthe Debay, Antoine Desboeufs, Jean-Jacques Feuchère, Antonin-Marie monk, Jean-Jacques Elshoecht (known as Carle Elshoecht) and Louis-perfect Merlieux. The rostral columnscarry prowls of ship, evoking also the emblem of the city of Paris. The allegorical statues of eight French cities outline the Octagon designed by Gabriel. Referring to Strasbourg, by James Pradier is draped in black from 1871, the date of the attachment of Alsace-Lorraine to the Germany.

In 1854, ditches, which Hittorff was kept, are filled up to adapt better to the site traffic.

20th century

• On the 6^th of February 1934, the manifestation of the far-right leagues focuses on the Concorde square (place de la Concorde). Clashes with security forces killed 20 people and injured 2 300.

The Concorde square (la place de la Concorde), with its soil, its fountains, statues, its workman’s hut, its balustrades, columns and its streetlights, is being classified as an historical monuments by a decree passed on the 23^rd of March 1937.

• On the 14^th of July 1979, Jean Michel Jarre did a concert there.

• On the 1^st of December 1993, on the occasion of the world AIDS day, Act Up-Paris association is the Obelisk of a 30 meter- giant condom and symbolically renamed the place: the place of the dead of AIDS.
• On the 7^th of May 1995, Jacques Chirac supporters celebrate his election as the Presidency of the Republic. This echoed the victory of François Mitterrand on the 10^th of May 1981, celebrated on another symbolic place: the place of the Bastille (la place de la Bastille.).
• In the year 2000, the French urban climber Alain Robert climbs the obelisk, without telling anyone and without any safety devices.

                    

In the 21st century [edit: modify the code]

• On the 6^th of May 2007, as in May 1995 for the election of Jacques Chirac, the place was used to celebrate the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election. It also serves as an open-air meeting place for the presidential-candidate Nicolas Sarkozy on the 15^th of April 15, 2012 to address a gathering at the esplanade of the castle of Vincennes of Francois Hollande at the same time.
• During the 2007 summer, the place was emptied of its passers-by for filming of Eric and Ramzy’s films, only Two(Seuls Two).

       

Architecture

The square was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755 as an octagon surrounded by the garden of Tuileries and the Champs Elysees. The fountains, added by Hittorff, are inspired by those of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.

The main peculiarity of the Concorde square (la place de la Concorde) is that it is limited by  'empty' on three sides (unlike most places, which are surrounded by buildings on all sides): the Champs-Elysées, the garden of the Tuileries, and the Seine.

Hotels

At the north end, two identical broad stone buildings close the perspective. Divided by the rue Royale, these structures are among the best examples of the 18th century architecture.

Only the facades were designed by Gabriel and erected between 1766 and 1775. They are inspired by the colonnade of the Louvre built by Claude Perrault by the principle of a colonnade high on a strong base (here by vigorous bossages), the large entablature, the angle pavilions, and also by elements of décor such as the oval medallions adorned with garlands. The pediments are decorated with allegories of agriculture, trade, the magnificence and public Felicity by Guillaume II Coustou and Michelangelo Slodtz.

• The building, commonly known as the Navy hotel, located at Royal Street East was built by Gabriel plans under the direction of Jacques-Germain Soufflot and was, from the outset, entirely property of the Crown. Initially assigned to the storage unit, whose galleries were open to the public every first Tuesday of each month of Quasimodo in the Saint-Martin between 9 am and 1 pm, he received from 1789, the Department of the Navy which, under the direction of Denis Decrès, considerably developed its offices to occupy the entire building. The interior decorations of great magnificence, are the work of the architect Jacques Gondouin and constitute an important step in the evolution of the taste in the 18th century. They have unfortunately been deeply distorted by the transformations made during the Second Empire, even though the main salons and the Golden Gallery retained a few original elements.
• The building located in the west of Royal Street was originally intended to house the new mint hotel(hôtel des Monnaies) which was construction since 1768. But this location was ultimately deemed too far away from the business district, and a decision of the Council decided that the new building would be to its current location on the Quai de Conti. The field behind the Western colonnade was then divided into four lots which were sold to individuals, charged to raise private mansions behind the façade of Gabriel:
  •  Coislin Hotel (No. 4), the closest hotel to the Royal Street, retains the original decoration only oak woodwork decorated with garlands and flowers in the salons of the floor.
  • The two hotels, sometimes called Plessis-Bellière hotel (No. 6) and Cartier hotel (No. 8), overlooking the colonnade which was built by the architect Pierre-Louis Moreau-Desproux, the first for one of his friends, rusty of the estang (Squire, Secretary of the King, and the Treasurer-general of funds of the Police), and the second for himself. They were reunited after 1901 on behalf of the Automobile Club of France and transformed in 1912 by the architect Gustave shores.

 

• The Aumont hotel (No. 10), at the corner of Boissy d’Anglas street, was built by the architect Louis François Trouard, the Interior décor being directed by Pierre-Adrien Paris. In 1788, the hotel was purchased by the count of Crillon. In 1907, the building is bought by the of big stores company of the Louvre and transformed into a luxury traveler’s hotel, the Crillon hotel, by architect Walter-André Destailleur. This one leaves the main staircase intact, built the facades on Courtyards in the style of Gabriel, but did remove most of the origin interiors. Thus, in the living room of the eagles on the first floor, model room of an antique designed by Paris, it leaves only the sculpture of the ceiling, but copy the woodwork, six monumental doors and their frames and ice, the Bellange's cabinetmaker work, while the originals are resettled in the hotel of La Tour D'Auvergne (the present Embassy of Chile) avenue of La Motte-Picquet. Other woodwork is found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Villa Île-de-France, built in St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat for Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild. It was in this hotel that the constituent pact of the league of nations (commemorative plaque) was drawn up by president Wilson and the allied delegates from the 3^rd of February to the 11^th of April 1919.

According to the plan of Gabriel, the letters patent of the 21^st of June 1757 and the 30^th of October 1758 (still in force) prescribed the buildings located at the Northeast and Northwest corners of the square be built on similar principles.

 

• At the northeast corner of Saint-Florentin street, Talleyrand Hotel or Saint-Florentin hotel (currently owned by the Government of the United States, occupied by the law firm Jonesday), is a work of the architect Jean-François - Thérèse Chalgrin.
• In the Northwest of the square, At the side of the Boissy d’Anglas street, stood until 1775 the deposit of marbles of the Crown. After deletion, the field was granted to the general farmer Laurent Grimod of Reynière, charged to build a building similar to the hotel of saint-Florentin, known as hotel Grimod of Reynière. The painter Charles-Louis Clérisseau executed the first antiqudecoration inspired by the archaeological discoveries made at Pompeii and Herculaneum. The hotel then housed the imperial circle, then the Union artistic circle. Disfigured by successive additions, the hotel was razed and replaced by a neoclassical pastiche style built between 1931 and 1933 by the architects William Delano and Victor Laloux to house the Embassy of the United States. This hotel, which meets the Hotel Talleyrand, restores the symmetry of the north side of the square as Gabriel had initially envisaged.

It should be noted that the hotels in la place de la Concorde retain the oldest numbers of Paris. They were implemented in 1805, as a result of the Decree of February 4, 1805, by which the Frochot prefect implements street numbers in Paris intramuros.

Obelisk

The Egyptian obelisk of Luxor, 3,300 years old (13th century ad was transported to France in 1836, offered by Egypt in recognition of the role of the French Champollion who was the first to translate hieroglyphics. King Louis-Philippe had it placed in the center of the square during its development by the architect Hittorff. 22,86 meters high, the monolith, pink granite of Syene, weighs 227 tons. It is built on a base of 9 meters and is topped by a Golden pyramidion of three and a half meters. The hieroglyphs that cover it celebrate the glory of Pharaoh Ramses II.

The top of this Obelisk is topped with a pyramidion of more than 3.50 m, added in July 1998, as sharp as it’s sparkling, made of bronze and gold leaf. It is meant to replace a previous ornamental Summit, carried away during invasions in Egypt in the sixth century.

The Obelisk is located on the line of the historic Paris axis which goes from the Triumphal Arc of the carousel to the Arch of Defense through the garden of Tuileries and the Champs Elysees avenue.

The Obelisk serves as a gnomon with a sundial whose Roman numerals and lines were traced to the ground by metal inlays in the coating of the center of the square.

Statuary

In 1794, both groups sculpted by Antoine Coysevox representing the fame and mercury mounted on the winged horse Pegasus were placed in the Tuileries and replaced by Guillaume Coustou's Marly horses who decorated the trough of the castle of Marly. These were then placed at the entrance to the avenue of the Champs-Elysées in 1795 on the initiative of Huzard Carpenter, who feared vandalism which threatened them. The four groups were replaced in the year 1984 by casts.

At each corners of the octagonal square stands a statue representing a French city:

• Brest and Rouen by Jean-Pierre Cortot. Located in the North-West angle (Hotel de Crillon side) of the places. According to popular tradition, Louis XVI was guillotined at the location of the statue in the city of Rouen. Some monarchists still gather there always every January 21^st.
• Lille and Strasbourg by James Pradier. Located in the northeast corner (Rivoli street) of the places. It said that Pradier took, for Strasbourg model, Juliette Drouet, who had been his mistress before becoming that of Victor Hugo. The Strasbourg statue was long veiled with a black and floral crepe as a reminder of the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, annexed by the German Empire in 1871.
• Lyon and Marseille by Louis Petitot. Located at the southeast corner (Museum side of the Orangerie) of the place.
• Bordeaux and Nantes by Louis-Denis Caillouette. Located at the southwest corner (Cours la Reine) room.

Fountains

The two fountains of the place de la Concorde are located on both sides of the Obelisk. The work of the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff which adds these two monumental fountains - the sea fountain placed in the South (Seine side) and the fountain of the rivers to the North (Royal Street side).

Citations

• • " La place de la Concorde is not a place, it's an idea." (Curzio Malaparte)

 

A few people who were guillotined in the Revolution Square

• Louis XVI, on January 21, 1793.
• Marie-Antoinette of Austria, on the 16^th of October 1793.
• Charlotte Corday, on the 17^th of July 1793.
• The Girondins, on the 30^th and 31^st of October 1793.
• Olympus of Gouges, November 3, 1793
•  Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans, on the 6^th of November 1793.
• Ms. Roland, on the 8^th of November 1793.
• Jacques-René Hébert, on the 24th of March 1794.
• Georges Jacques Danton, on the 5^th of April 1794.
• Camille Desmoulins, on the 5^th of April 1794.
• Jean-Joseph of Laborde, on the 18^th of April 1794.
• Antoine Lavoisier, on the 8^th of May 1794.
• Jean-Baptiste-Tavernier-Boullongne, on the 8^th of May 1794.
• Elisabeth of France (Ms. Elizabeth), on the 10^th of May 1794.
• Maximilien Robespierre, on the 28^th of July 1794.
• Louis Antoine de Saint - Just, on the 28^th of July 1794.
• Georges Couthon, on the 28^th of July 1794.
• François Hanriot, on the 28^th of July 1794.

Initially, the bodies were transported to the cemetery of la Madeleine (today a square of Louis XVI) and rest there always.

From 1794, the remains of the convicts were transferred to the cemetery of the Errancis. Since the work of the urban planning in the 19th century, their bones have all been removed from this cemetery and stored pell-mell in the catacombs.

Service road

This site is served by the Concorde metro station. Which took over the name of the place.

Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde