Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde ( German "Place of Harmony" ) is the largest square in Paris and one of the five royal courts of the city. It lies north of the Seine in the 8th arrondissement between the Jardin des Tuileries and the Champs -Élysées. With an area of ​​68.470 m², it is the second biggest square of France, after Quinconces in Bordeaux. In the Place de la Concorde lead, among other things, the Rue Royale, the Rue de Rivoli, the Cours la Reine and one of its bridges, the Pont de la Concorde.

History

Laid out the place 1755-1776 by ​​Jacques -Ange Gabriel as "Royal Square " (French Place Royale ) named Place Louis XV to a realized Edmé Bouchardon equestrian statue of Louis XV. a worthy place to give. For the new place, it had initially been several possible locations on both sides of the Seine. The King finally decided on a vacant lot at the end of the Tuileries Gardens, which belonged to him and which was then outside the city limits. The Place Louis XV was octagonal created and surrounded by a moat.

During the French revolution, the equestrian statue was destroyed and replaced by a monumental Statue of Liberty. The place got the name 1792 Place de la Révolution, and a year later the guillotine was erected there. Here in 1119 people were publicly executed in two and a half years (including King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, Madame du Barry, Danton, Robespierre and Olympe de Gouges, ., See also list during the French Revolution executed people ).

After the end of the reign of the Jacobins of the place was renamed in 1795 by the government in Place de la Concorde. The name changed in the following decades, depending on the balance of power ( Place Louis XV, Louis XVI Place, Place de la Charte ), to the place after the July Revolution of 1830 was given its present name.

Citizen King Louis -Philippe decreed to provide the center of the square with a politically neutral monument. Some years earlier, the Egyptian Muhammad Ali Pasha had the French government promised some obelisks, of which only reached a copy of Luxor Paris in December 1833. The 3200 years old stone pillar was erected in the center of the Place de la Concorde. He is said to symbolize the difficult attainment of concord (French Concorde ). On the square are held every year the celebrations for the French national holiday on July 14 its peak.

Attractions

Obelisk

Is salient in 1836 erected the Obelisk of Luxor, which is in the middle of the square. He is about 22 meters high and was a gift from the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha to France in recognition of the services of Jean -François Champollion. The base was created by the Cologne-born architect and urban planner Jakob Ignaz Hittorff. 1998 donated the fashion entrepreneur and patron Pierre Bergé for the obelisk a 3.6 meter high Pyramidion gilded bronze.

The eight Stadtallegorien

Hittorff was also charged with the additional decoration of the place, for which he designed the two fountains and eight stone female statues were commissioned, representing the allegory of French cities: Bordeaux, Lille, Brest, Rouen, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes and Strasbourg.

Fountain: marine and river - fountain

The Fountain of the seas (French Fontaine des Mers ) and the Fountain of the Rivers (French Fontaine des Fleuves ) flanking the obelisk. This space is dedicated to the spirit of the French shipping on the seas and on the rivers. This corresponds to the task of a Gabriel - building, the Navy Department, which was initially used for the Garde Meuble - king ( see below). Both wells were inaugurated by the prefect Rambuteau on 1 May 1840. The northern fountain, the river navigation is with seated figures symbolizing the Father Rhine, Rhône and the wine and grain harvest; however, the southern, towards the Seine Located fountain represents the sea voyage to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, together with the fishing

Hôtel de Crillon and the Ministry of Marine

On the north side of the square located in the west of the buildings on either side of the Rue Royale with running the same facades of Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the Hôtel de Crillon ( now a hotel ). In the same building is the headquarters of the Automobile Club of France.

The eastern building, the Hôtel de la Marine, is since 1789 the Navy Department. It was originally the Garde- Meubles -called royal furniture and equipment storage, ie a depot of the household of the king. In 2010, the future use of the 20,000 square meters of floor space and approximately 700 rooms and extensive building was uncertain as to set up the état ​​-major of the Marine later than the end of 2014 at the new headquarters of the Ministry of Defence in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the metro station Balard will.

The identical front of the buildings designed by Louis François Trouard based on the facades of the Louvre. It shows each two ( pseudo) temple halls ( four columns with portico bill ), which are connected by a long, twelve-part series of columns towards the square. Between the two buildings you can see in the background the eight pillars of the Church of St. Madeleine.