Paris's largest public square
The Obélisque de Louxor stands at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, a 3,300-year-old granite monument carved around 1289 BC for the Temple of Amon at Luxor, given to France in 1829 and raised on this square in 1836 before 200,000 onlookers.
Gabriel built an octagonal square on marshy ground
The Place de la Concorde is the largest public square in Paris, built in the shadow of the Tuileries Garden. Today it is a traffic circle of broad stone and fountains, with the Champs-Élysées running northwest from its edge. It began as swampy ground beside the Seine, chosen in 1748 by Paris merchants to hold an equestrian statue of King Louis XV, to celebrate his recovery from a serious illness. The architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel designed an octagonal plaza, ringed by a moat and stone balustrades, finished by 1772. The sculptor Edmé Bouchardon cast Louis XV on horseback, dressed as a Roman general, at its center. Within days of its unveiling in 1763, someone hung a sign on it mocking the king. Gabriel also built two matching palace fronts on the square's north side. One became the Hôtel de la Marine, home to the royal furniture stores and later the French navy's headquarters.
A royal wedding's fireworks killed 132 people here
Before the Revolution turned this square violent, a fireworks show meant to celebrate a royal wedding went wrong here. The display marked the marriage of the future Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette. A rocket misfired and set off the stored fireworks. The fire and the stampede that followed killed 132 people, buried afterward in a nearby cemetery. It was a grim preview of what the square would become for both of them.
Over a thousand people died under the guillotine here
In August 1792, revolutionaries tore down the statue of Louis XV and melted it for scrap. The square took a new name, Place de la Révolution, and a guillotine replaced the fallen king. Louis XVI was executed here on 21 January 1793. Marie Antoinette followed that October. Charlotte Corday, Madame du Barry, and later the revolutionary leaders Danton and Robespierre died on the same ground. Between 1793 and 1795, 1,119 people were guillotined at this spot. The square was renamed Place de la Concorde in 1795, a deliberate gesture toward peace after the killing stopped.
Restored kings renamed the square four times
After Napoleon fell, the restored kings renamed the square again. It became Place Louis XV once more in 1814, then Place Louis XVI in 1826, honoring the king executed there. Charles X wanted the name to mark his brother's death, not erase it. The square settled on Place de la Concorde for good in 1830, under the new king Louis-Philippe.
An Egyptian obelisk older than Rome rose here
Egypt's ruler, Mehemet Ali, gave France a 3,000-year-old obelisk from the Luxor Temple as a diplomatic gift. The scholar Jean-François Champollion, who had deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs, helped arrange it, though he died in 1832 before it reached Paris. On October 25, 1836, engineer Apollinaire Lebas raised the 230-ton obelisk at the center of the square. More than 200,000 Parisians watched. Lebas stood directly underneath it as it rose, risking his own life if the ropes failed. Louis-Philippe later gave Egypt a clock in return. It still sits, unworking, on the citadel in Cairo. The obelisk's hieroglyphs were never perfectly aligned with the square's axis, a small error nobody fixed.
Hittorff dressed the square with fountains and statues
Architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff finished dressing the square in the years after the obelisk went up. He added two bronze fountains celebrating France's rivers and seas, and ornate lampposts that still light the plaza. Eight statues went up at the square's corners, each representing a French city: Brest, Rouen, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lille, and Strasbourg. The square had become something closer to what stands today, a formal stone plaza rather than a killing ground.
The square and obelisk gained legal protection
The obelisk earned legal protection as a historic monument in 1936. The square itself followed in 1937, closing it to any further rebuilding. In 1998, workers capped the obelisk's tip with a thin layer of gold leaf, restoring a shine it had lost to time. The Ministry of Culture returned to the obelisk once more in 2022, cleaning and restoring it over several months, material by material.
Olympic skateboarders competed where the guillotine stood
Nearly two centuries after the obelisk went up, the Place de la Concorde hosted part of the Paris Olympics. Skateboarders, BMX riders, and breakdancers competed on temporary courses laid across the stone where the guillotine once stood. The square that buried a king now drew crowds for games.
Today the Place de la Concorde carries fast traffic in a wide loop around the obelisk, fountains, and corner statues. The Champs-Élysées opens toward the Arc de Triomphe to the northwest, and the Tuileries Garden spreads toward the Louvre to the southeast.
The obelisk still stands at the center, its gold cap catching the light above the traffic circle.
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