Place de la Concorde, Paris

Parisians have long diced with death at the Place de la Concorde. Over a hundred were trampled here at a fireworks display to celebrate the marriage of the future Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette and it wasn't all that many years later that the king and the queen (along more than a thousand others) were to meet their fate on the guillotine that was set up here during the bloody years of the Revolution. These days it's drivers, seemingly treating the place as a racetrack, and tourists, keen to examine the central obelisk more closely, who uphold the tradition.

This is the biggest square in Paris, surrounded by grand buildings and eight statues depicting the major cities of France, with lovely fountains and two handsome colonnades. Right in the centre - the hub around which all the cars swirl and race - is a magnificent pink granite Egyptian obelisk. 3300 years old, 23 metres high and weighing over 200 tonnes, it replaces both the statue of the king whose reign the square was built to glorify and the dreaded guillotine -symbol of all the excesses of the Reign of Terror. Placed here in 1832 (after a journey from Egypt that took three years and considerable engineering skill) the obelisk was seen as a splendidly non-political monument after the turbulence of the past.

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The place de la Concorde is the largest place in Paris along Seine river and separates the Tuilere Gardens from the beginning of the Champs Elysees. It was center the guillotine that executed in particular Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and 2800 others in French revolution. The statue of Louse XV replaced by the Obelisk of Luxor given by the viceroy of Egypt, Mohamed Ali, to Louis Phillipe. The obelisk is at the center and there are two fountains from the same period. At each corner of the octagon is found a statue that represents one of the large French cities: Lille, Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Brest and Rouen.

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On Place de la Concorde you will discover what is the essence of the monumental architecture of the most beautiful city in the world.
Go there in the evening; the traffic has decreased so that you will arrive healthy at the foot of the up lighted Obelisk. She is not alone to stand out against the sky, somewhat further stands the Tour Eiffel, the Arch du Triomphe; closer to the South the National Assembly and to the North the Hotel Crillon and the church of the Madeleine.
In the shade of the Tuileries' gardens the outlines of Le Louvre are guessed.
What a marvel the incomparable perspectives of Paris!
Furthermore there is nothing as nice on a warm summer night as to refresh near the Fountain of the Seas or the Fountain of the Rivers with their monumental statues. They are very spectacular with coloured lights and the water running at a high rate of flow.

The Place de la Concorde was less romantic in 1793 when the guillotine stood here; she was called Place de la Révolution. More than 1100 persons were executed here among which King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoinette and many persons of the royal family. Also leaders of the Revolution like Danton and Robespierre were beheaded here.

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Place de la Concorde is the city's biggest square and it is known to be one of the most beautiful squares in the world. Located between the Jardin des Tuileries and the Champs-Elysees avenue, it was inaugurated in 1763. It was then known as "Place Louis XV" and a statue of the said king sat at the center of the square. During the French Revolution, however, a guillotine was installed in its place and it became a place for public executions. King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette were among the 1,119 persons beheaded at the Place Louis XV, which was soon to be named Place de la Concorde.

The obelisk that now stands in the middle of the place was a gift from Egypt and it was added to Place de la Concorde in 1836 as part of a remodeling project that was meant to make people forget about the bloody past of the square. The "Luxor" obelisk is over 22 m tall, weighs about 227 tons and is over 3,300 years old. It is covered with hieroglyphics that praise the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II. The fountains, street lights as well as the buildings that surround Place de la Concorde create a very harmonious architectural ensemble that makes for really great pictures!

Between the Champs Elysées and the Tuileries Gardens, there lies the Place de la Concorde. With traffic roaring and careening about seemingly in all directions, it is easy to feel lost on its 84,000 square meters.

History
It was designed by Gabriel begun in 1748 and completed in 1763. It was first called Place Louis XV, and planned as a worthy setting for the royal statue. Place de la Concorde is often associated with the bloody events that took place on its pavement. In 1770, for example, 133 spectators were trampled to death at a huge fireworks display on the occasion of Marie-Antoinette's wedding to the Dauphin. A few
decades later, the revolutionaries, who were intent on eliminating all royalist monuments trom the face of the earth, removed Louis XlV's statue, dubbed the plaza Place de la Révolution, and set up their guillotine on it. Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and 1119 other people lost their lives here, among them Charlotte Corday (the murderess of Marat), Danton, Philippe Égalité and Robespierre. In order to help these bloody events on their way to oblivion, the Directory renamed the square Place de la Concorde in 1795. And, officially, the 1830 Revolution renamed it Place de la Concorde.

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The first time I visited Paris I walked along many of the famous places in about 12 hours. This is one of my first pictures I took of the Place de la Concorde during that long walk.

This square was designed in the 18th century to surround the statue of Louis XV. In the same century in 1792 the square got the name Place de la Revolution and a guillotine was set up at the square. Louis XVI and more than 1000s other people are executed here. In 1795 the square got its present name Place de la Concorde in the hope that it could become a place of peace and harmony.

Besides its horrible history I was especially interested in the 23M high obelisk with hieroglyphs in the middle of the square. This pink granite obelisk of 3300 years old was a present from Egypt to France in 1831. Originally it stood in the Temple of Ramses in Luxor, the temple I should visit first 10 years later.

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Place De La Concorde is the largest square of the city. Here the guilotine was set for the execution of Louis XVI, Maria Antoinette and almost 3000 other people in period 1793-1795. In our days you will hardly smell the blood around although with so many cars around there a car accident is always possible… :)

The famous monument in the square is the big Ovelisque which actually a copy of the real one in Egypt (town of Theve, now known as Luxor).

There are also 8 statues that symbol the main cities of France(Bordeaux, Brest, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Rouen, Strasbourg) at the corners of the square. What more you can do here? You can see the statue of Louis XV (erected in 1763 after a serious illness that didn’t kill him) and of course the Ferris Wheel, a lot of tourists like it but my opinion is that it doesn’t fits with the area between the Louvre and the Obelisque. It’s 60m high was supposed to stay there for a year after the millennium celebrations but in January 2011 was still there…

Place de la Concorde is near of Tuileries Garden that is nice for a small walk until the entrance of the Louvre

The Place de la Concorde is a very large square in the middle of Paris. It was here that Revolutionary France beheaded their King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette (who on being told that the peasants were starving and had no bread to eat, is famously said to have replied "Let them eat cake") with the Guillotine. As is the way with many revolutions, two of the most important revolutionaries were also killed here at the hands of Madame Guillotine. In those days this square was called Place de la Revolution.

The picture shows the 3200 year old Egyptian obelisk against the Eiffel Tower and one of the several statues in the square.

In the center of the Place de la Concorde is the 3,300 years old Obelisk of Luxor, a pink granite monolith 73 ft high and weighing 220 tons. This is one of the pair of obelisks that were erected in front of Luxor Temple and decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II. In the 19th century it was transported to Paris, while the other monolith remained at the original cite in Luxor. On June 8th, 1831, a French naval engineer secured permission from the Egyptian viceroy to make off with the western obelisk. Then, on October 25th, 1836, it was erected at the center of Place de la Concorde in Paris, in the presence of French King Louis Philippe,

Recently Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities has asked for its return to Luxor Egypt.

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The place de la Concorde is located between the Champs Elysees and the Jardin des Tuileries. The square of about eight hectare has besides the Egyptian obelisk also two fountains and eight statues, representing the French cities.

Standing with your back to the Seine you see two manor houses, the Hotel de la Marine and Hotel de Crillon. From here you can also look into the Rue Royale and see the Eglise de la Madeleine, which looks like a Greek temple.