Place de la Concorde

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The Place de la Concorde is one of the major squares in Paris, France. It is located in the VIIIe arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.

1 History
2 The Place today
3 Features
- 3.1 Obelisk
4 Transportation
5 External links

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History

The Place was designed by Jacques Ange Gabriel in 1755 as a moat-skirted octagon between the Champs-Élysées to the west and the Tuileries Gardens to the east. Filled with statues and fountains, the area was named Place Louis XV to honor the then king. The Place was showcasing an equestrian statue of the king, which had been commissioned in 1748 by the city of Paris, sculpted mostly by Edmé Bouchardon, and completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle after the death of the former.

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At the north end, two magnificent identical stone buildings were constructed. Divided by the rue Royale, these structures are among the best examples of that period's architecture and remain there to this day. Initially they served as government offices and the eastern one continues as the French Naval Ministry. Shortly after its construction, the western building was made into the luxurious Hôtel de Crillon (still operating today) where Marie Antoinette soon spent afternoons relaxing and taking piano lessons. The hôtel also served as the headquarters of the occupying German army during World War II.

During the French Revolution the statue of King Louis XV was torn down and the area renamed "Place de la Révolution". In a grim reminder to the nobility of a gruesome past, when the "Place des Grèves" was a site where the nobility and members of the bourgeoisie were entertained watching convicted criminals being dismembered alive, the new revolutionary government erected the guillotine there. The first notable to be executed at the Place de la Révolution was King Louis XVI, on January 21, 1793. Other important people guillotined there, often in front of cheering crowds, were Queen Marie Antoinette, Madame Elisabeth, Madame du Barry, Danton, Lavoisier, and Robespierre. The guillotine was most active during the "Great Terror", in the summer of 1794, when in a single month more than 1,300 people were executed. With the "Reign of Terror" subsiding after the Thermidorian Reaction (July 27, 1794).

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Following the Revolution, the Place underwent a series of transformations and several further changes of name: by 1795 the government began calling it Place de la Concorde (French for concord), then Place Louis XV (again), Place Louis XVI, Place de la Chartre, and once again Place de la Concorde. This name was made official in 1830.

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The Place today

Today, the bloody history of Place de la Concorde is lost behind the daily hordes of motor vehicles rushing past the obelisk. The obelisk lies in the line of the axe historique. The United States embassy is located just off the square in the northwest corner, west of the Hôtel de Crillon. To the north lies the Église de la Madeleine. The Place is also home to the headquarters of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the rulemaking body for Formula One and other world motorsport.

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Features

The eastern end of the Champs-Élysées is located to the west of the Place
The western end of the Tuileries Gardens is located to the east of the Place. The Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume and the Musée de l'Orangerie, both in the Tuileries Gardens, border the Place
North of the Place: two identical stone buildings, divided by the Rue Royale. The eastern one houses the French Naval Ministry. The western one is the Hôtel de Crillon. The Rue Royale leads to the Église de la Madeleine. The Embassy of the United States is located in the corner of the Place at the intersection of Avenue Gabriel and Rue Boissy d'Anglas
The northeastern corner of the Place marks the western end of the Rue de Rivoli
South of the Place: the Seine river, crossed there by the Pont de la Concorde, built by Jean-Rodolphe Perronnet between 1787-1790 and widened between 1930-1932. The Palais Bourbon, home of the French National Assembly, is located across the bridge, on the opposite bank of the river
At each corner of the octagon formed by the Place are statues, created by Jacob Ignaz Hittorf, representing the French cities of Lille, Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Brest and Rouen.

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Obelisk

The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II. It once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, presented the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk to France in 1829. King Louis-Philippe had it placed in the centre of Place de la Concorde in 1833. Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat — on the pedestal are drawn diagrams explaining the machineries that were used for the transportation. The red granite column rises 23 metres high, including the base, and weighs over 250 tonnes. Missing its original cap, believed stolen in the 6th century BC, in 1998 the government of France added a gold-leafed pyramid cap to the top of the obelisk. The obelisk is flanked on both sides by two fountains constructed at the time of its erection on the Place.

Without warning, in 2000, French urban climber, Alain "Spiderman" Robert, using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices of any kind, scaled the obelisk all the way to the top.

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