Place de la Concorde

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Place de la Concorde is Paris’s largest open space outside of the parks. With the gardens of the Tuileries on the one side, and the famous Champs-Elysees beginning on the other, the Place de la Concorde makes for an ideal destination from your holiday home in Paris.

It was completed in 1763 under Louis XV, and was in fact originally named after him as Place Louis XV, with a statue of him in the middle.

Wandering here from your holiday home in Paris, what you’ll first notice about this square is that unlike all others in the city, it is not enclosed, but acts as an intersection for several main avenues.

The square became infamous during the French Revolution when it was renamed Place de la Revolution, and throughout the Terror its guillotine became a symbol of bloodletting and excess that shocked the rest of Europe. King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette were its most high profile victims.

But as the Revolutionary Terror spun out of control, Danton and Robespierre who had sent so many others to their deaths, themselves lost their heads along with many hundreds of others.

Like many other landmarks in Paris, following the Revolution and the restoration of the monarchy the square was renamed several times, often after the reigning monarch, and finally Place de la Concord was settled on, to stress reconciliation rather than lasting enmity.

The Luxor obelisk, installed in the square in 1836, was a gift to Louis Phillipe from the Viceroy of Egypt, and replaced the statue of Louis XV that disappeared when the Revolution broke out. It stands at the centre of a symbolic oval, embellished with various statues representing French cities.

Place de la Concorde is in a central position and is an impressive place to visit in its own right, although the scent of roses now replaces the stench of blood.