Paris's biggest square has changed its name five times since 1772
Built to flatter Louis XV, the largest square in Paris became the stage where his grandson lost his throne and his life. It has been named for two kings, for the Revolution and for harmony, and its centrepiece is a 3,300-year-old obelisk that once guarded the entrance of Luxor Temple.
In 1748 the merchants of Paris commissioned an equestrian statue to celebrate Louis XV's recovery from a grave illness. Ange-Jacques Gabriel laid out an octagon ringed by a twenty-metre moat, finished by 1772, with Edme Bouchardon's bronze king dressed as a Roman general at its heart. The monarch's popularity had already faded when it was unveiled in 1763; days later a placard mocked that the Virtues stood underfoot while Vice rode the horse. Gabriel also raised the twin palaces on the north side, one of which became the navy's headquarters, the Hotel de la Marine.
Revolution turned the space into a political theatre. Rioters took weapons from the Hotel de la Marine on 13 July 1789, including two cannon once sent by the King of Siam. The royal statue was torn down and melted in August 1792, replaced by a figure of Liberty, and the square became the Place de la Revolution. Louis XVI died by the guillotine here on 21 January 1793 and Marie Antoinette that October. Danton, Lavoisier and Robespierre followed during the Terror, and the final executions came in May 1795.
That same year the Directory chose the name Concorde as a gesture of reconciliation. The restored Bourbons switched it back to Louis XV in 1814, then Louis XVI in 1826, before the July Revolution of 1830 restored Concorde for good. Under Louis-Philippe, Jacques Ignace Hittorff remade the square: the yellow granite obelisk, gifted by Muhammad Ali of Egypt and weighing over 250 tonnes, was raised before a huge crowd on 25 October 1836. Hittorff added two nine-metre fountains modelled on those of St Peter's Square in Rome, one for the seas and one for the rivers of France.
The square later welcomed the world's fairs of 1900 and 1925, the second of which gave Art Deco its name, and it hosted crowds celebrating both world war victories and the 1998 World Cup. France capped the obelisk with gold leaf in 1998, replacing a tip believed stolen in the 6th century BC. During the 2024 Olympics it staged BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and 3x3 basketball, and most of it has stayed free of cars since.
Source: Place de la Concorde
