Place de la Concorde occupies a ceremonial crossroads between the Tuileries, Champs-Élysées and Seine. Its obelisk, twin fountains and eight city statues frame a public square reshaped from royal monument to Revolutionary stage and later civic junction.
Quick facts
The square opened in 1772 as Place Louis XV, became Place de la Révolution in 1792, and took the name Place de la Concorde in 1795.
During the Revolution, the square saw the executions of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton, Robespierre and many other people.
The Luxor Obelisk, a thirteenth-century BCE monument offered to France by Egypt, was erected at the centre of the square in 1836.
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At the centre of Place de la Concorde, a 3,000-year-old Egyptian obelisk stands where a statue of Louis XV once announced royal authority. The contrast is the square’s key: its stones have repeatedly been asked to make a new political story look permanent. Today it links the Tuileries and Louvre to the Champs-Élysées, with the Seine to the south. It spans the 1st and 8th arrondissements, though its ceremonial centrality began as an edge-of-town project.
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