Place de la Concorde: The Guillotine and the Obelisk
Why is it significant?
Stand by the fountains and turn around slowly. The Champs-Élysées rising to the arch, the gardens of the Tuileries, the columns of the National Assembly across the river, the colonnades of two twin palaces. And in the middle, a pink granite needle covered in hieroglyphs, with a golden cap.
Key Facts
| Place | Place de la Concorde: The Guillotine and the Obelisk |
|---|---|
| Address | Place de la Concorde, 75008 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.86550, 2.32110 |
| Part of Walk | Triumph and Guillotine: The Champs-Élysées from the Arc de Triomphe to Concorde, Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand by the fountains and turn around slowly. The Champs-Élysées rising to the arch, the gardens of the Tuileries, the columns of the National Assembly across the river, the colonnades of two twin palaces. And in the middle, a pink granite needle covered in hieroglyphs, with a golden cap.
The square was laid out from the 1750s by Ange-Jacques Gabriel to frame a statue of King Louis the Fifteenth on horseback. It was called Place Louis the Fifteenth. The eight statues around the edge represent great French cities. When Strasbourg was lost to Germany in 1871, its statue was draped in black crepe, and the crepe stayed until 1918.
In 1792 the king's statue was torn down, the square renamed Place de la Révolution, and the guillotine set up here. On the twenty-first of January 1793 Louis the Sixteenth was executed in front of a silent crowd. Marie-Antoinette followed in October, then Danton, and in July 1794 Robespierre himself, the man who had sent so many others. Well over a thousand people died on this square. In 1795, as if to wash it clean, it was renamed Concorde, harmony.
The obelisk is over three thousand years old. It stood at the entrance of the temple of Luxor, and the ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, offered it to France. Bringing it here took years and a specially built ship. On the twenty-fifth of October 1836, it was raised in front of an enormous crowd. Look at the pedestal: diagrams in gold show the machinery used to lift it. The golden cap was only added in 1998.
In return, France sent Egypt a clock, which still stands in the citadel of Cairo... and which, the story goes, never worked properly. An obelisk for a broken clock: not the best deal in history. Now walk to the corner of the Tuileries garden by the river, to the low building with the long windows.