The history of Place de la Concorde

A royal square

The square’s history began in 1748, during the heyday of King Louis XV. Paris City Hall wanted to build an equestrian statue paying tribute to the king. The sculptor Edmé Bouchardon was tasked with making it. But to promote it, the statue would need a site worthy of royalty.

A competition of ideas was set in motion and around 150 plans were submitted: from the right bank to the left bank and the islets, many solutions were put forward. A period of great hesitation followed, which lasted as long as five years! In the end, a vast esplanade to the west of the Tuileries Garden was chosen.

Today, this site seems like an obvious choice. But it was actually a carefully considered spot. First, the land belonged to the king, which limited costs and expropriation required for making the square. Second, the city of Paris was growing fast: many new neighbourhoods were being built to the west, along the Saint-Honoré suburb. Lastly, the square and its architecture formed a true link between the Tuileries Garden and the Champs-Elysées.

Did you know?

There are two other royal squares in Paris: Place Vendôme, paying tribute to King Louis XIV, and Place des Vosges in honour of his father King Louis XIII.

There are also many royal squares throughout France: from Rennes, Reims, Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseille and Lyon to Place Royale du Peyrou in Montpellier and Place Stanislas in Nancy, built in honour of Stanislas Leczynski, King of Poland!

The equestrian statue of Louis XIII on Place des Vosges in Paris

The architecture of Place Louis XV

In 1753, an architecture competition was set in motion to develop the square: 19 plans were submitted by members of the Académie royale d’architecture. They were all registered in an album for the Marquis de Marigny, chief of the king’s buildings. Yet none of the plans pleased King Louis XV. In the end, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the king’s chief architect, put together the best ideas from these different plans to develop what would become Place Louis XV.

Works began in 1758 but the square was only completed in 1772, 24 years after Paris City Hall expressed its desire to build an equestrian statue of King Louis XV.

The architecture that Gabriel wanted:

• An octagonal wall with a balustrade, edged with 20-metre-wide garden ditches.
• On the north side, two twin palaces built in a classical style, flanking Rue Royale leading to La Madeleine church. The eastern building was occupied by the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, then by France’s navy ministry. The western building is a private palace that now houses Hôtel de Crillon and the head office of the Automobile Club de France.
• The square’s south side opens up entirely onto the River Seine.

Place Louis XV in 1763, engraving by George-Louis Le Rouge

An anecdote

On 30 May 1770, festivities were held to honour the wedding of the dauphin – the eldest son of the King of France, the future King Louis XVI – and Marie-Antoinette of Austria. A ball was planned in the salons of honour of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and a firework display would take place for Parisians. But the party turned into a catastrophe! A fire sparked by a stray firework caused panic, triggering a fatal stampede. The party was ruined and the reception cancelled.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution, which shook the country from 1789, deeply marked the history of Place Louis XV.

What could be better for removing traces of the Ancien Régime than changing the name of a square made in tribute to a king? On 11 August 1792, Place Louis XV was therefore renamed Place de la Révolution the day after the monarchy had been abolished. For symbolism, the equestrian statue of Louis XV was toppled from its pedestal and sent off to be melted! Between 1793 and 1800, it was replaced with a plaster statue of François-Frédéric Lemot, representing Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap.

The square was where the guillotine was positioned, but it is unclear whether this was because of its location, the symbolism of its name or simply its size. The guillotine was first used here for specific purposes, particularly for executing King Louis XVI on 21 January 1793, then it stayed on the square for the long term. Among the figures sentenced to death and executed on the Place de la Révolution were: King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Madame du Barry, the last mistress of King Louis XV, Danton and Robespierre.

A key figure

Out of the 2,498 cases of people guillotined in Paris over the six years of the French Revolution, 1,119 of these executions took place on Place de la Révolution.

A beheading, Place de la Révolution, painting by Pierre-Antoine Demachy (circa 1793)

In the 19th century, the square became Place de la Concorde

As political regimes changed, so did the name of the square over the first few years of the century. First, it became Place de la Concorde under the French Consulate in 1795, then Place Louis XVI in 1826, an initiative from King Charles X in honour of his late brother. In the end, the square got its definitive name back in 1830: Concorde. This name was not chosen at random. The name concorde, meaning agreement, was intended to herald reconciliation among the French people following the excesses of the Reign of Terror and the political upheavals at the end of the 18th century and start of the 19th century. It therefore underlined the importance of the square in French politics and symbolism at the time.

In 1831, the viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, gave France one of the obelisks of Luxor Temple in Thebes as a gift and token of gratitude for Champollion’s work on translating hieroglyphics. The obelisk was installed in the middle of Place de la Concorde on 25 October 1836 under the orders of Louis-Philippe, King of the French, who watched the operation from the reception rooms of the Hôtel de la Marine!

From 1836 to 1846, Place de la Concorde underwent its last major transformations through the work of architect Jacques-Ignace Hittorff.

In reference to the navy, which had settled in the edifice of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne since the start of the French Revolution, the architect added various features around the square:

• Two monumental fountains flanking the obelisk. On the River Seine side, the Fontaine des Mers features decor representing the Mediterranean, the ocean and fishing. On the Rue Royale side, the Fontaine des Fleuves is decorated with seated figures representing the Rhine, the Rhone and harvests of grapes and wheat.
• Street lamps and ship-head columns – triumphal columns designed to commemorate naval victories – feature beakheads of vessels. They also evoke the slogan of the city of Paris (Fluctuat nec mergitur).
• At the corners of the square, eight statues represent French cities: Brest and Rouen in the north-west, Lille and Strasbourg in the north-east, Lyon and Marseille in the south-east, and Bordeaux and Nantes in the south-west.

Place de la Concorde, its fountains and its street lamps on a postcard produced by the store Le Bon Marché

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Place de la Concorde has remained at the heart of Parisian and French life

During the 20th and 21st centuries, Place de la Concorde has continued to bear witness to major events:

• 6 February 1934: following an anti-parliamentarian demonstration in front of the Chamber of Deputies, violent clashes broke out between far-right demonstrators and the police. The result: 20 deaths and 2,300 casualties, making the incident the bloodiest shooting in the history of the French Third Republic. It deeply marked French politics.
• 23 March 1937: Place de la Concorde and all its architectural features were classed as listed historical monuments.
• In 1995 and 2007, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, freshly elected presidents of France, celebrated their victories there.

With the opening of the Hôtel de la Marine and its courtyard restaurants, Place de la Concorde has reclaimed its central role in the daily life of Parisians!