An anarchist's contempt for the bourgeois lit a bombing wave
An anarchist's dismissal fed a bombing campaign
Last reviewed 12 August 2026 · A three-minute read · 1587–2014
The short answer
Place Vendôme, in central Paris, was laid out from 1698 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart on the razed ground of the Couvent des Capucines, becoming an octagonal square of royal statuary that later grew into a byword for luxury, home to the Ritz, Charvet, and Cartier's Rue de la Paix.
1702
The square rose from a demolished Capuchin convent
You are standing in the octagonal heart of the Place Vendôme, the square Jules Hardouin-Mansart laid out with its pedimented screens canted across the corners like a courtyard turned inside out. It began life as the Place Louis-le-Grand, a stage built for royal statuary, and its cross streets carry no other name — here, the square simply *is* the address.
Before Mansart's colonnades rose, this ground belonged to the Church. The site was occupied by the Couvent des Capucines, a convent of Capuchin Poor Clares founded by Marie de Luxembourg, Duchess of Mercœur — it stood here until it was cleared and finally destroyed in 1806. A few dozen metres away, the Les Feuillants Convent tells the same story of monastic Paris giving way to secular grandeur; its church, founded in 1587 under Henry III, later hosted the revolutionary Feuillant Club and served Jacques-Louis David as a painting studio.
Closer to living memory, this exact square hosted a scandal of a different order: in October 2014, a 24-metre inflatable sculpture by Paul McCarthy, officially a Christmas tree but widely read as something cruder, went up here for FIAC. McCarthy was assaulted over it and the piece vandalized within two days, and it came down early.
Ring the square and you find the names that made it a byword for luxury: the Hôtel Ritz Paris, founded in 1898 by César Ritz with the chef Auguste Escoffier, opened just steps from where you stand, among the first hotels in Europe with electricity and a telephone in every room. Nearby, Charvet has fitted kings and heads of state with bespoke shirts since 1838 from its address at 28 Place Vendôme, and the Hôtel Baudard de Saint-James, a former hôtel particulier at no. 12, still bears the square's eighteenth-century domestic architecture.
The square's Capuchin convent, cleared for the Place Vendôme, was not fully demolished until 1806.
1893
Anarchist bombings and a stabbing struck nearby streets
A short walk east, past the Avenue de l'Opéra, brings you close to the site of the 13 November 1893 stabbing, when the anarchist Léon Léauthier knifed a Serbian diplomat simply for "looking bourgeois" — one of the opening acts of the Ère des attentats, the wave of anarchist terrorism gripping Paris in those years. A year earlier and slightly further off, the Carmaux-Bons Enfants bombing killed four police officers and a factory worker when a parcel bomb sent by Émile Henry detonated at a police station on Rue des Bons Enfants.
Rue de la Sourdière, a few streets north, holds a quieter piece of revolutionary drama: during a riot, Maximilien de Robespierre is said to have escaped into the Church of Saint-Roch and out through a tunnel onto this street. Saint-Roch itself, at 284 Rue Saint-Honoré, was the site of the 13 Vendémiaire in 1795, when a young artillery officer — soon to be known as Napoleon Bonaparte — turned cannon fire on royalist insurgents outside its steps.
Fashion and commerce cluster densely in this radius: the Rue de la Paix, Paris runs north from the square past Cartier's original 1898 shop, while Harry's New York Bar, converted from a bistro in 1911 by the jockey Tod Sloan, claims the birth of several classic cocktails. The old riding school, the Salle du Manège, seated the revolutionary legislatures of France from 1789 until its demolition in 1804 to make way for the Rue de Rivoli.
56000000
Marine rock underlies every façade on the square
Underfoot, the ground is built on transgressive marine deposits laid down between 56 and 34 million years ago — siltstones, marls, and claystones of the Paris Basin, capped by younger clay, gravel, and sand from the last ten thousand years. It is unglamorous rock, but it is the same soft sedimentary geology that gave Paris its building stone and its underground quarries, the quiet foundation beneath every façade on this square and every street radiating from it.
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Early modern
founded 1587
Founded in 1587 by Henry III, the Feuillants convent behind the square became the meeting place of the Feuillant Club during the Revolution, and Jacques-Louis David used its nave as a studio.
Beginning in 1698, Jules Hardouin-Mansart laid out the Place Vendôme on the former site of the Couvent des Capucines, giving it the octagonal aspect the reader stands within.
During the Revolution, Maximilien de Robespierre escaped a riot by ducking into the Church of Saint-Roch and taking a tunnel toward the Rue de la Sourdière, nearby.
On 13 Vendémiaire 1795, the young Napoleon Bonaparte's artillery fired on royalist insurgents from the steps of the Church of Saint-Roch, a short walk south.
Founded in 1838, the shirtmaker Charvet operates from 28 Place Vendôme, just beyond this spot, supplying bespoke shirts to royalty and statesmen since the 19th century.
On 8 November 1892 anarchist Émile Henry's parcel bomb, forwarded to the Rue des Bons Enfants police station, exploded and killed four police officers and a worker.
On 13 November 1893, anarchist Léon Léauthier stabbed Serbian diplomat Mihailo Đorđević nearby, an act considered a founding moment of indiscriminate anarchist terrorism.
In 1898 the Ritz Paris opened behind an 18th-century façade overlooking Place Vendôme, pioneering en-suite bathrooms, electricity, and telephones in every room.
Founded by Elsa Schiaparelli and refounded in 2014, the haute couture house Schiaparelli operates near the square, continuing its high-fashion character.
In October 2014 Paul McCarthy's 24-metre inflatable 'Tree', widely mocked for resembling a butt plug, was installed in the Place Vendôme and McCarthy was assaulted amid the outcry days later.
The ground was occupied by the Couvent des Capucines, a convent of Capuchin Poor Clares founded by Marie de Luxembourg, Duchess of Mercœur, which stood until it was cleared and finally destroyed in 1806.
What happened at Place Vendôme in 2014?
In October 2014 a 24-metre inflatable sculpture by Paul McCarthy, installed for FIAC, provoked outcry over its resemblance to something cruder than a Christmas tree, and McCarthy was assaulted within two days, leading to the piece coming down early.
When did the Ritz Paris open?
The Hôtel Ritz Paris opened in 1898, founded by César Ritz with the chef Auguste Escoffier, and was among the first hotels in Europe to offer electricity and a telephone in every room.
What anarchist violence occurred near Place Vendôme in the 1890s?
On 13 November 1893 the anarchist Léon Léauthier stabbed a Serbian diplomat nearby simply for 'looking bourgeois,' and a year earlier, on 8 November 1892, Émile Henry's parcel bomb killed four police officers and a worker at a police station on Rue des Bons Enfants.
How old is the shirtmaker Charvet at Place Vendôme?
Charvet has operated from 28 Place Vendôme since 1838, fitting kings and heads of state with bespoke shirts.
What geological layers lie beneath Place Vendôme?
The ground is built on transgressive marine deposits of siltstones, marls, and claystones laid down between 56 and 34 million years ago, capped by younger clay, gravel, and sand from the last ten thousand years.