The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring 8.64 hectares (21.3 acres) in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city’s eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
The Place was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755 as a moat-skirted octagon between the Champs-Élysées to the west and the Tuileries Garden to the east. Decorated with statues and fountains, the area was named Place Louis XV to honor the king at that time. The square showcased an equestrian statue of the king, which had been commissioned in 1748 by the city of Paris, sculpted mostly by Edmé Bouchardon, and completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle after the death of Bouchardon.
Area-at first bore the name of Louis XV. Like other “royal” squares, it was decorated with the equestrian statue of the monarch, in the very beginning of the French Revolution, a monument to the king was overthrown, and the area of Louis XV renamed the Square of the Revolution and is decorated with a statue of Liberty. January 21, 1793 on a site near the Champs Elysees was beheaded King Louis XVI. After a few days the scaffold with a guillotine was installed near the Tuileries garden terrace. There were executed by Queen Marie-Antoinette, Charlotte Corday (who killed Marat), the Duke of Orleans, Philippe Egalite, mistress of King Madame du Barry, the revolutionaries Camille Desmoulins, Saint-Just, Danton, many Girondins. A year later, on the area of the victim were guillotined Thermidor coup led by Maximilian Robespierre. All during the Revolution in the area were executed 1119. In 1795, the area became a witness to the numerous executions, received a conciliatory name – Place de la Concorde, in other words, when dissent was not – it was the “Concord”
At the north end, two magnificent identical stone buildings were constructed. Separated by the rue Royale, these structures remain among the best examples of Louis Quinze style architecture. Initially, the eastern building served as the French Naval Ministry. Shortly after its construction, the western building became the opulent home of the Duc d’Aumont. It was later purchased by the Comte de Crillon, whose family resided there until 1907. The famous luxury Hôtel de Crillon, which currently occupies the building, took its name from its previous owners; it was the headquarters of the German High Command during World War II.
For the transport of the monumental “gift” of Egypt was built cargo ship “Luxor”. Sea journey from Egypt to Toulon lasted two years and 25 days. Just three years obelisk lay on the bank, while the square mounted lifting devices designed engineer Apollinaire Lebas. August 16, 1835 the obelisk was set on a granite pedestal in the presence of the royal family and the 200-thousand crowd of Parisians. By the way, the installation of the Luxor obelisk took just … three hours. Individual episodes of transportation and installation are shown on a pedestal. In 1999, the tip of the Luxor obelisk was crowned with a gold tip on the casting which took 1.5 kg of pure zolota.vid the Seine and the Eiffel creation
with the “Place de la Concorde” wonderful views of the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, and with the other side adjacent Tuileries Gardens, which is located deep in the Louvre. Therefore impossible to get lost, thanks to the Paris maps and a good guide in Russian, which are found at every turn!
The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II. It is one of two the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. The other one stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology at that time. In the 1990s, President François Mitterrand gave the second obelisk back to the Egyptians.
The obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Mehmet Ali, offered the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk to France in 1829. It arrived in Paris on 21 December 1833. Three years later, on 25 October 1836, King Louis Philippe had it placed in the center of Place de la Concorde, where a guillotine used to stand during the Revolution.
The obelisk, a yellow granite column, rises 23 metres (75 ft) high, including the base, and weighs over 250 metric tons (280 short tons). Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat — on the pedestal are drawn diagrams explaining the machinery that was used for the transportation. The obelisk is flanked on both sides by fountains constructed at the time of its erection on the Place.
Missing its original cap, believed stolen in the 6th century BC, the government of France added a gold-leafed pyramid cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998.
Without warning, in 2000 French urban climber Alain “Spiderman” Robert, using only his bare hands, climbing shoes and no safety devices, scaled the obelisk all the way to the top.