Place de la Concorde, where Paris opens to the sky
Published on 09/05/2026 at 19:52 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Place de la Concorde is the great open square between the Tuileries Garden and the start of the Champs?Élysées, laid out in the eighteenth century for King Louis XV and renamed after the turmoil of the French Revolution.
From royal project to revolutionary stage
The square began as a royal commission for a new Place Louis XV, designed and set out in the mid?eighteenth century under the direction of Ange?Jacques Gabriel, first architect to King Louis XV.Place Louis XV The site lay on the right bank of the Seine, facing the river and aligned with the long urban axis that runs from the Louvre towards the countryside beyond the Champs?Élysées.east–west axis of the Louvre and the Champs?Élysées
In the decades that followed, the former royal square became closely entangled with the French Revolution. In 1792 it was renamed Place de la Révolution, and a guillotine was erected at its centre for public executions during the Reign of Terror.Place de la Révolution Here figures such as King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre were put to death, giving the square a lasting association with the most dramatic phase of revolutionary Paris.executions of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Robespierre
A square of changing names and new monuments
The name Place de la Concorde was adopted in 1795, at the end of the Terror, and over subsequent decades the square’s label shifted more than once as regimes changed, before Place de la Concorde became its settled name in the nineteenth century.succession of names During the July Monarchy, King Louis?Philippe asked architect Jacques?Ignace Hittorff to redesign the entire ensemble, a project carried out between the 1830s and 1840s that gave the square much of its present appearance.Hittorff redesign
At the centre of Place de la Concorde stands the Luxor Obelisk, an ancient Egyptian monument presented to Charles X in the 1830s and erected on the square not long afterwards.Luxor Obelisk presented to Charles X The obelisk rises above a patterned stone surface surrounded by balustrades, sculpted groups and ornate lampposts, marking the point where the urban axis from the Tuileries continues westwards along the Champs?Élysées and eastwards towards the historic palace complex.
Architecture, layout and the wide horizon
Place de la Concorde has the character of an expansive urban space whose outline is shaped by architecture from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. On its north side stand substantial classical façades, including the Hôtel de Crillon and other grand buildings built in a restrained, colonnaded style associated with mid?eighteenth?century French architecture.octagonal classical square with prestigious hotels The river side opens towards the Pont de la Concorde across the Seine, while the opposite edge connects directly to the tree?lined Tuileries Garden.
Hittorff’s nineteenth?century reworking introduced two monumental fountains, the Fontaine des Mers and the Fontaine des Fleuves, placed on either side of the obelisk with richly carved basins and sculpted figures.Fontaine des Mers and Fontaine des Fleuves Together with the axial views towards the Arc de Triomphe in one direction and the Louvre in the other, these elements give Place de la Concorde a distinctive combination of classical architecture, monumental sculpture and expansive urban landscape.
Visiting Place de la Concorde: what travellers from Western Europe should know
- Place de la Concorde lies in the western part of central Paris, between the Tuileries Garden and the beginning of the Champs?Élysées on the right bank of the Seine.
- The square is a broad paved space with kerbs, ornamental fountains and traffic lanes, so pedestrians cross wide surfaces and use designated crossings to move between the obelisk, fountains and surrounding pavements.
- Several Métro lines serve the area, with Concorde station close to the north?eastern side of the square and other stops within walking distance along Rue de Rivoli and the Champs?Élysées.
- The official language is French and the currency is the euro.
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Frequently asked questions about Place de la Concorde
Where is Place de la Concorde in Paris?
Place de la Concorde is a major square on the right bank of the Seine, between the Tuileries Garden and the eastern end of the Champs?Élysées in central Paris.
What should visitors expect when they arrive?
Visitors encounter a wide paved expanse framed by classical façades, the Luxor Obelisk and two monumental fountains, with strong visual axes towards the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe.
What makes Place de la Concorde distinctive among Parisian squares?
Its combination of eighteenth?century royal origins, revolutionary history, nineteenth?century redesign by Jacques?Ignace Hittorff and the presence of an ancient Egyptian obelisk gives Place de la Concorde a particular historical and architectural depth.
