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Retrace your steps down rue de Castiglione until you reach rue de Rivoli and turn right. Walk along the north side of the Jardin des Tuileries and you will come to Place de la Concorde. Covering more than eight hectares (20 acres), this is one of Europe’s most magnificent and historic public squares. Only two buildings actually face onto it: the twin façades of the Hôtel de la Marine and the Hôtel de Crillon. It began life as Place Louis XV, and like many another Paris square, was planned around an equestrian statue of the king (this time by Bouchardon).
Architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel designed it as an open octagon with only the north side containing buildings. The square’s somewhat unusual shape may come from the fact that it was originally surrounded by a rather odd system of waterways (which have long since been filled in). Renamed Place de la Revolution during the Terror, the guillotine replaced the statue of the king, and in only two and a half years, 1,119 people were executed here, including King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoinette and the revolutionary leaders Danton and Robespierre.
Renamed Place de la Concorde in an effort to erase its bloody past, the square was graced by the erection of a 3,200-year-old obelisk from Luxor in the 19th century. This is flanked by two fountains and eight statues representing French cities. The square is now the culminating point of the triumphal parades down the Champs-Elysées on Bastille Day each year.
At the northeast corner sits the Hôtel de la Marine. Originally known as the Gardemeuble (furniture storage), this elegant building was commissioned by Louis XV, possibly for the Dauphin. It was designed by architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel and built between 1757 and 1774. It was never really lived in, having been used as a sort of warehouse for the royal family’s spare furniture. It is also where Marie-Antoinette’s death warrant was signed. It has housed France’s Ministry of the Marine since the Revolution. The building was profoundly altered during the Second Empire. Twinned with the Hôtel de la Marine on the other side of rue Royale is the Hôtel de Crillon. This is an actual hotel, and generally regarded to be one of the world’s oldest luxury establishments. Containing over 100 guestrooms and 44 suites, it replaces an earlier town house, the Hôtel de Coislin. Giant colonnades rise two storeys on both buildings, in an obvious imitation of Perrault’s east front of the Louvre. These form a fitting enclosure for the northern side of this impressive square.
At the southern end, across the Pont de la Concorde, sits the Assemblée Nationale Palais-Bourbon. Built as a palace for the Duchesse de Bourbon, the natural daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, it was designed in 1722 by the Italian architect Lorenzo Giardini, who died within two years, so the construction was taken over by Jacques-Ange Gabriel. Completed in 1728, it initially consisted of a central block flanked by simple wings ending in symmetrical pavilions. It was then bought by Louis XV, who sold it to
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