Place de la Nation
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2017) |
Length | 252 m (827 ft) |
---|---|
Width | 252 m (827 ft) (circular with diameter = 252 m) |
Arrondissement | 11th, 12th |
Quarter | Sainte-Marguerite . Picpus |
Coordinates | 48°50′54″N 2°23′45″E / 48.84833°N 2.39583°E |
From | Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine |
To | Avenue du Trône |
Construction | |
Completion | Already present on the Delagrive plan in 1728 |
Denomination | 2 July 1880 |
The Place de la Nation (formerly the Place du Trône, subsequently the Place du Trône-Renversé during the French Revolution) is a circle on the eastern side of Paris, between the Place de la Bastille and the Bois de Vincennes, on the border of the 11th and 12th arrondissements. Widely known for having the most active guillotines during the Revolution, the square acquired its current name on Bastille Day, 14 July 1880, under the Third Republic.
The square includes a large bronze sculpture by
History
The Place du Trône and Louis XIV's aborted triumphal arch
The space that is now the Place de la Nation first emerged on 26 August 1660, on the occasion of the ceremonial entrance of Louis XIV and his new wife Maria Theresa, following their wedding in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on 9 June 1660. A throne was erected on that spot, which was subsequently known as the Place du Trône ("Throne Square"), a name that survives to the present with the Avenue du Trône and Foire du Trône .
In the late 1660s,
The triumphal arch project holds a special place in France's cultural history, as it was the starting point of a public controversy known as the Quarrel of Inscriptions (
Mur des Fermiers Généraux
The
The wall's construction left a vast grassy space of vines and market gardens as far as the medieval city wall and the walls of the gardens of the old village of Picpus, which contained large convents, schools and retreats. Originally, the square accommodated two pavilions and two columns of the barrière du Trône designed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux and built for the barrier of octroi (for tax collection) which surrounded the entrance to the cours de Vincennes. The columns were surmounted by statues of Kings Philip II and Louis IX.
French Revolution
During the Revolution, the square was renamed the Place du Trône-Renversé ("Toppled Throne Square"), on 10 August 1792. A guillotine was set up in the southern half of the square, near the Pavilion of Law built by Ledoux. Those guillotined there were buried in the nearby Picpus Cemetery and include:
- André Chénier, 25 July 1794.
- Cécile Renault, Henri Admirat and Jean-Baptiste Michonis, 17 June 1794.
- Josse-François-Joseph Benaut, composer, 13 July 1794.
- The nuns, 17 July 1794
19th century
The central monument, The Triumph of the Republic, is a bronze sculpture created by
20th century
On 22 June 1963, the magazine
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Jean Nagle (1989). "La ville de l'absolutisme triomphant : De François Ier à Louis XV". In Louis Bergeron (ed.). Paris : Genèse d'un Paysage. Paris: Picard. pp. 93–145.
- ^ "Jean Lucas (jésuite, 1638-1716)". Bibliothèque nationale de France.
- ^ Tim Denecker (2012), "Taaltheorie ter verdediging van het Latijn : Joannes Lucas S.J., De monumentis publicis Latine inscribendis oratio (1677)", Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse maatschappij voor taal- en letterkunde en geschiedenis, 66, Mechelen: 195–209
- ^ "Where the Statues of Paris were sent to Die". Messy Nessy's Cabinet of Chic Curiosities. 7 January 2016.
External links
- (in French) Recherche des rues de Paris