Statues

Eight statues, representing eight different French cities were commissioned to decorate the pedestals erected around the Place de la Concorde.  Cortot sculpted Brest and Rouen; Pradier, Lille and Strasbourg; Petitot, Lyon and Marseille; Caillouette, Bordeaux and Nantes….translated from the Insecula website. They were sculpted between 1835 and 1838.

Place de la Concorde -
History and background

The Place de la Concord was built between 1755 and 1775. Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698 to 1782) won the architectural competition by presenting a project based on an octagonal area surrounded by balustrades.

Eight statues, representing eight French cities decorate the pedestals erected around the plaza. Cortot sculpted Brest and Rouen; Pradier, Lille and Strasbourg; Petitot, Lyon and Marseille; Caillouette, Bordeaux and Nantes.

Two fountains, inspired by those at Saint Peter’s in Rome, constructed between 1835 and 1840 are in the center. The northern fountain represents water navigation and the
Southern fountain represents ocean/maritime navigation.

Originally called Place Louis XV, the area covers 84,000 square meters (904,000 square feet). After the equestrian statue of the king was toppled in 1792, it became la Place de la Revolution. During The Terror, it became the theater of the executions. No fewer than 1,119 people, among those Louis XVI, his wife, Marie-Antoinette, most of their closest relatives, later leaders of the Revolution suffered the punishment of the guillotine.

Two twin buildings on each side of the rue Royale border the north end of the plaza. They were constructed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel: the Ministry of the Navy was the seat of the Marine Française and the Hôtel de Crillon, one of the grand Parisian hotels.

“…It was in one of these townhouses, the Hôtel de Coislin - 4, place de la Concorde - that the friendship treaty was signed in 1778, whereby France officially recognized the independence of the 13 states that made up the United States of America at the time. One of the signatories was none other than Benjamin Franklin, then a delegate from Pennsylvania….” – source: France Monthly

The columns, inspired by those at the Louvre, bear witness to the early Louis XVI period. Originally ordered for the Marly palace (château de Marly) the Marly horses (Chevaux de Marly) reside permanently at the Louvre.

The granite obelisk erected in the middle of the plaza is over 3,300 years old. In 1831, Muhammad Ali, the viceroy (governor who represents the king) and pasha of Egypt (a civil or military authority) offered it to France.

The obelisk, covered in hieroglyphs, weighs approximately 230 tonnes (250 tons) and measures 23 meters (75 feet) high. It was originally located in the Luxor Temple of Thebes. The lower portion of the support pedestal describes the technical method that permitted its transport and erection in the Place de la Concorde.

The source of this translation is from the Insecula website unless otherwise specified.
 

Place de la Concorde during Nuits Blanches held in October