Place de la Concorde – Concorde Square
Ce point d’intérêt est disponible en audio dans le circuit: Visit Paris, On the Champs Elysées
Welcome to the Place de la Concorde, the biggest one in Paris and one of the most beautiful. This historic square was created in the late 1700s at the request of Louis XV. The king’s chief architect oversaw the project and built what was then inevitably called Louis XV Square, home to grand mansions and a statue of the king at its center. During the Revolution, it was renamed Revolution Square. The statue of the king was destroyed and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were exemplarily guillotined here! Under the new monarchy of Louis Philippe, the square was renamed Place de la Concorde, in an effort to bury its revolutionary past. Architect Hittorf remodeled it, adding two giant fountains and the obelisk at its center. A 3,000-year-old relic from the time of the pyramids stands right here, in the heart of Paris! Crazy, right? It’s one of the two majestic obelisks that were marking the grand entrance to Luxor Temple in Egypt. Believe it or not, they date from 1300 to 1250 BC! In 1830, the viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, gifted the two monoliths to King Charles X of France to thank him for Champollion’s work in deciphering hieroglyphs. Only one could be brought back to France, and it was a massive undertaking. Imagine transporting a 23-meter-high, 220-ton block of granite! How did the ancient Egyptians even do it? At long last, on October 23, 1836, the crowds stood in awe as this magnificent obelisk, covered in gold leaf and hieroglyphs glorifying the pharaohs, was raised here, perfectly aligned with the Arc de Triomphe. If only the pharaohs knew where the obelisk stands today, they wouldn’t believe their eyes!
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