The Place de la Concorde, Paris
Over a thousand heads rolled under the guillotine in the square,
today the largest and most beautiful of Paris.
[Obelisk Place de la Concorde]
Place de la Concorde is the most beautiful square in Paris and larger. Its location offers spectacular views of one of the most attractive areas of the city: To the east, a perspective of the Jardin des Tuileries, the Arc du Carrousel and the Louvre, to the west, the Champs Elysees and the Arc Triumph. La Rue Royale opens north to reach the Church of the Madeleine, and across the Seine, across the Puente de la Concorde, stands the Palais Bourbon, seat of the National Assembly.
The center of the square is dominated by an imposing pink granite obelisk of Luxor over 3300 years old and almost 23 meters high, a gift from Egypt to France. In each of the corners of the square, octagonal, is a statue representing a French city: Brest, Rouen, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lille and Strasbourg. To the north and south of the obelisk, two monumental fountains depicting marine themes complete the square.
The history of the Place de la Concorde goes back to the time of Louis XV, who decided to hold a square with the statue in the center and surrounded by hotels to present the prestigious Hotel Crillon and the Ministry of the Navy, on both sides of the Rue Royale.
In the foreground, and font Obelisk de la Concorde in the background, the Palais Bourbon and the golden dome of Les Invalides.
At the time of the Revolution, the statue of the king was replaced with one that symbolized liberty, and the place was notorious with the installation of the guillotine, of the nearly 2,500 people guillotined during this period, 1119 were executed in this square, then known as the Plaza of the Revolution. With the end of the Terror was decided that his name would be “Place de la Concorde.”
For the governments that followed the Plaza presented a political problem, always marked by memories of the Reign of Terror. During the Restoration, the return of the monarchy to power, the idea of placing a statue in memory of Louis XVI, a way of honoring those who died in this noble place, which never materialized.
Finally, in 1831 the Viceroy of Egypt Mohammed Ali gives France an obelisk that marked the entrance to the temple of Luxor Aman. Luis Felipe I decided that would be installed in the Place de la Concorde, where not remember any political event. In 1833 he began his move to Paris after many vicissitudes since its size and weight of 227 tonnes, reaching the city in 1836. The obelisk is covered with hieroglyphs and in the plinth is recorded that describe the techniques used for transport.
Obelisk at Place de la Concorde
Source: www.mundocity.com/europa/paris/concorde.html