ENLARGED TO ASSEMBLE TROOPS, PLACES DE LA RÉPUBLIC AND DE LA NATION FOLLOW THE ROYAL MODEL
At their center is a symbol of power, heir to the statues of equestrian kings.
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| Adapted from Mappy |
Drone shot / zoom
Place des Vosges, the first royal place and model for all others of importance.
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Place de la République
- Originally the space in front of a porte (gate) in the 14th-century rampart.
Adapted from the Turgot map, 1735
- Haussmann hugely enlarged the area, to let the army reach a covered-over canal on the edge of working-class territory. He also had long, straight streets run toward it and replaced the disparait houses with the uniform buildings that characterize the torn-down areas generally.
- He left the Fontaine des Lions. Symbols of force and majesty, lions suited the image of the Second Empire.
By Charles Fichot / zoom
Before 1880 when the fountain was transferred to the 12th district, where one can still admire it.
- The giant statue, Homage to the Republic, took the fountain's place (in 1883).
Ministry of Culture (cropped) / zoom
When the Second Empire imploded (in 1870) the Third Republic shakily appeared. The statue was made when an election showed it definitive (in 1879).
- The most important Parisian barracks is next to the site, to have soldiers on hand in case of another insurrection.
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Place de la Nation is far to the east, which explains why it was...
- Where Louis XIV's royal entry took shape.
- The gate was wall built in the city wall to tax incoming goods. Taverns sprang up just outside it, where wine was cheaper. The cancan is a lasting expression of the counter-culture that grew up as a result.
The straight street behind the columns, which symbolize Justice and Prosperity, leads to Paris. It is a symbol of royalty, the new wall being built a few years before the Revolution (in 1784). The tax it imposed added to the fury that led to taking the Bastille.
- The site of the first popular celebration of the Revolution, in April 1792. Since the government was run by wealthy deputies who feared the street, such an event had to take place on an outskirt.
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| On April 15 1792, the first celebration of Liberty when 40 soldiers were torn away from they galleys of Brest. / zoom |
In 1791 soldiers in the eastern town of Nancy resisted officers withholding their pay. Two were hanged and 40 others sent to the galleys. Their liberation led to this event.
- Where the guillotine was moved (in 1794), when Parisians became disgusted with the Terror.
Execution of the Martyrs of Compiègne at place of the Overturned Throne on July 17, 1794 / zoom
Notice the columns.
The best-known execution is that of 14 Carmelite nuns, who sang as they mounted the scaffold one by one, the abbess last, still singing.
Louis-Philippe (1830-1848) tried to reinforce the monarchy by placing the most celebrated medieval kings (Philippe le Bel and Louis IX / Saint Louis) at the top of the columns. He was overthrown regardless.
Now the Republic — Marianne, its symbol, with one bared breast following Delacroix — stands on a chariot pulled by lions, which Liberty guides and Work, Justice and Abundance surround.
Sculpture Jules Dalou, photo Oanh Nguyen Thuy
Plaster statue for the centennial of the Revolution in 1889, final version in bronze, 1899
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The immense spaces,
built to assemble troops in case of insurrection,
recall national grandeur
and by taking up the symbol at the center
buttress the authority.
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