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).

mom and I in Paris 

Heroes' Square, Budapest

Budapest, Hungary

This was our first trip to Hungary when it was still under the communist rule. We just took a day trip from Vienna. Photo above is at the massive Heroes' Square one of the capital's main attractions.

Built in 1896 to celebrate the millennium of the Hungarian conquest of the Carparthian Basin, Heroes' Square is a vast and grandiose symbol of 19th-century Hungarian nationalism.

An imposing 36-metre high column which supports the winged figure of the Archangel Gabriel (György Zala 1896) is encircled on its pedestal by statues of the seven conquering Magyar tribal chiefs on horseback. Behind, are two semi-circular colonnades housing the statues of the most famous rulers in Hungarian history.

The stone tablet in front of the main column, which on ceremonial occasions is guarded by soldiers, commemorates those who died for national freedom and independence. The square is flanked on either side by the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts) and the Múcsarnok (Palace of Art).