Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde is one of the most well-known public squares in Paris, France. This city square, measuring approximately 19 acres (7.6 hectares), is the largest of its kind in Paris. It is situated in the city’s eighth arrondissement, which is located in the eastern part of the Champs-Élysées.

The square has seen many historic public executions, including the public executions of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were among the last individuals to be guillotined during the Reign of Terror, which prompted the renaming of the square as Place de la Révolution.

Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the architect of the Place de la Concorde, designed the octagonal palace that sits in the moat between the Champs-Elysées to the west and the Tuileries Garden to the east. The area was decorated with statues and fountains, and it was given the name the Place Louis XV to honor the king at that time.

This exhibition featured an equestrian statue of the king, which had been commissioned in 1748 by the city of Paris, and sculpted mostly by Edmé Bouchardon, except for the last few panels which were completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle after Bouchardon’s death.

The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics which celebrates the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II. This obelisk was one of two that Egypt provided to France in the 19th century. Because the one that stayed in Egypt was too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology of the time, the other one remained in Egypt.

The first obelisk was given back to the Egyptians on September 26, 1981, when Mitterrand became President of France.

It is a widely known fact that the two fountains in the Place de la Concorde have been the most famous of the fountains built during the time of Louis-Philippe, and came to symbolize the fountains in Paris. The layout of the Pestalozzi Island Neighborhood House was designed by the Neoclassical-influenced École des Beaux-Arts-trained architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff.

His lineage was German, and he had previously served as Festivals and Ceremonies Architect for the deposed King. He studied the fountains and architecture of Italy for two years before returning to Germany.