Description
Place de la Concorde is the largest square in Paris, 7.6 hectares of open stone at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées, where the Tuileries Garden ends and the avenue begins. At its center stands a 3,300-year-old Egyptian obelisk, framed by two big fountains.
The Luxor Obelisk is the reason to come. It is a yellow granite column 23 meters high with its base, weighing more than 250 tonnes, once at the entrance of the Luxor Temple and covered in hieroglyphs praising Ramesses II. Its gold-leafed tip was added in 1998, replacing the original, long missing.
Look at the pedestal: diagrams show the machinery that brought the obelisk from Egypt and raised it in 1836, a feat watched by a huge crowd. Around it, two fountains by Hittorff, nine meters high, were modeled on those of St. Peter's Square in Rome.
On the north side stand two identical palaces by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, inspired by the Louvre's colonnade. One was the Hôtel de la Marine, the other became the Hôtel de Crillon. Eight statues of French cities stand on columns, each roughly where its city lies on the map of France.
The square was born as a tribute to a king. In 1748 the merchants of Paris commissioned an equestrian statue of Louis XV, and Gabriel designed the square around it. Soon a placard on the statue read, "The Virtues are under the feet, and Vice is in the saddle!"
The Revolution melted the king down and put a statue of Liberty in his place. Of the 2,498 people guillotined in Paris, 1,119 died here: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Danton, Lavoisier and, in the end, Robespierre himself.
In 1795 someone thought the square needed a gentler name. They chose Concord. Later it was the venue for the 1900 and 1925 expositions, for victory celebrations and, in 2024, for Olympic sports.
The Luxor Obelisk is the reason to come. It is a yellow granite column 23 meters high with its base, weighing more than 250 tonnes, once at the entrance of the Luxor Temple and covered in hieroglyphs praising Ramesses II. Its gold-leafed tip was added in 1998, replacing the original, long missing.
Look at the pedestal: diagrams show the machinery that brought the obelisk from Egypt and raised it in 1836, a feat watched by a huge crowd. Around it, two fountains by Hittorff, nine meters high, were modeled on those of St. Peter's Square in Rome.
On the north side stand two identical palaces by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, inspired by the Louvre's colonnade. One was the Hôtel de la Marine, the other became the Hôtel de Crillon. Eight statues of French cities stand on columns, each roughly where its city lies on the map of France.
The square was born as a tribute to a king. In 1748 the merchants of Paris commissioned an equestrian statue of Louis XV, and Gabriel designed the square around it. Soon a placard on the statue read, "The Virtues are under the feet, and Vice is in the saddle!"
The Revolution melted the king down and put a statue of Liberty in his place. Of the 2,498 people guillotined in Paris, 1,119 died here: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Danton, Lavoisier and, in the end, Robespierre himself.
In 1795 someone thought the square needed a gentler name. They chose Concord. Later it was the venue for the 1900 and 1925 expositions, for victory celebrations and, in 2024, for Olympic sports.