Place de la Concorde, Paris, France

The octagonal Place de la Concorde is the largest square in Paris. It is situated between the Tuileries and the Champs-Elysées. In 1763, a large statue of king Louis XV was erected at this site to celebrate the recovery of the king after a serious illness. The square surrounding the statue was created later, in 1772, by the architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel. It was known as the place Louis XV.

In 1792, during the French revolution, the statue was replaced by a another, large statue, called Liberté (freedom) and the square was called Place de la Révolution. A guillotine was installed at the center of the square and in a time span of only a couple of years, 1119 people were beheaded here. Amongst them many famous people like King Louis XVI, Marie-Antionette, and Obelisk at Place de la Concorde, Paris revolutionary Robespierre, just to name a few. After the revolution the square was renamed several times until 1830, when it was given the current name Place de la Concorde.

In the 19th century the 3200 years old obelisk from the temple of Ramses II at Thebes was installed at the center of the Place de la Concorde. It is a 23 meters tall monolith in pink granite and weighs approximately 230 tons. In 1831, it was offered by the Viceroy of Egypt to Louis Philippe. The obelisk is covered with hieroglyphs picturing the reign of pharaohs Ramses II & Ramses III. Pictures on the pedestal describe the transportation to Paris and its installation at the square in 1836.

At each corner of the octagonal square is a statue representing a French city: Bordeaux, Brest, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Rouen and Strasbourg. They were installed in 1836 by Jacob Ignaz Hittorf, who redesigned the Place de la Concorde between 1833 and 1846. That same year a bronze fountain, called La fontaine des Mers was added to the square. A second one, the Elevation of the Maritime fountain, was installed in 1839. Both fountains were designed by Hittorf.

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User Reviews

Chathurika Ratnasekera (3 years ago)
It's absolutely beautiful. Never imagined that most go the famous attractions in Paris were within walking distance from here. It wasn't a place I planned to visit as I've never heard of it but when passing through it was the kind of place you want to stop and look around. In every angle you see something beautiful and interesting.

Alphaeus (3 years ago)
Beautiful place where the annual Bastille Day is held. The end of the March down champ élysées. Happens every July period. Weather is pretty warm in the day. Lots of shopping along the nearby streets. A place worth checking out as you walk along Paris.

Melvin Diaz (4 years ago)
An amazing plaza connected to the Arc of Triumph. With an Egyptian obelisk and two amazing fountains. Dense traffic, but reachable on foot by pedestrian crossings. Multiple city bus tours stop here. Great place for getting pics of the arc of Triumph.

ngodinh tra (4 years ago)
It's really nice architectural, well organized and beautiful decorated for the hug capacity for the large number of tourists, which visit Paris every year. The square sometimes so busy with many of tourist buses. So paying a visit at night is recommended.

maithli j (4 years ago)
Just beautiful. The weather was wonderful they carried you was nice. After we just said in drink in the atmosphere. We went over and sat on the grass ran round and had an amazing time.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

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Broch of Gurness

The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.

The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.

The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.

The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.

Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.

At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.

In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.

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