Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde, Paris

At 8 hectares, the octagonal Place de la Concorde is the largest square in Paris. It is situated between the Tuileries and the Champs-Elysées.

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 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.

At each corner of the octagonal square is a statue representing a French city: Bordeaux, Brest, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Rouen and Strasbourg.

From the Place de la Concorde you can see the Arc de Triomphe (west), the Madeleine (north), the Tuileries (east) and, across the Seine, the Assemblée Nationale (south).