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Place des Vosges

The Place des Vosges (French pronunciation: [plas de voʒ]), originally the Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in Paris, France. It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris. It is the oldest square in Paris, just before the Place Dauphine. It is an enclosed square, accessible via a main street on one of its four sides and two streets running beneath pavilions. It was a fashionable and expensive square to live in during the 17th and 18th centuries, and one of the main reasons for the chic nature of Le Marais among the Parisian nobility. Along with the Place des Victoires, Place Dauphine, Place Vendôme and Place de la Concorde, it is one of the five royal squares in Paris.

Place des Vosges
Aerial view of the Place des Vosges
Place des Vosges is located in Paris
Place des Vosges
Shown within Paris
Length140 m (460 ft)
Width140 m (460 ft)
Arrondissement3rd, 4th
QuarterArchives. Arsenal.
Coordinates48°51′20″N 2°21′56″E / 48.85556°N 2.36556°E / 48.85556; 2.36556
Fromrue de Birague, 11 bis
Torue de Béarn, 1
Construction
CompletionJuly 1605

History

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Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m × 140 m), it embodied one of the first European programs of royal city planning (Plaza Mayor in Madrid, begun in 1590, precedes it). It was built on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles and its gardens, which were demolished by Catherine de' Medici.

 
The reverse of a 5 French francs 1959 banknote of the French national bank (Banque de France) with a portrait of Victor Hugo. To the right is an image of the Place des Vosges.

The Place Royale was inaugurated in 1612 with a grand carrousel to celebrate the engagement of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, and became a prototype of the residential squares of European cities that were to come. What was new about the Place Royale, was that the house-fronts were all built to the same design, probably by Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau,[1] of red brick with strips of stone quoins over vaulted arcades that stand on square pillars. The steeply-pitched blue slate roofs are pierced with discreet small-paned dormers above the pedimented dormers that stand upon the cornices. Only the north range was built with the vaulted ceilings that the "galleries" were meant to have.

There are two pavilions that rise higher than the unified roofline of the square on the north and south faces and offer access to the square through triple arches. Though they are designated the Pavilion of the King and of the Queen, no royal has ever lived in the aristocratic square, except for Anne of Austria who lived in the Pavilion de la Reine for a short while. The Place Royale inspired subsequent developments of Paris that created a suitable urban background for the French aristocracy and nobility.

The square was often the place for the nobility to chat, and served as a meeting place for them. This was so until the French Revolution.

Before the square was completed, Henri IV ordered the Place Dauphine to be laid out. Within a mere five-year period, the king oversaw an unmatched building scheme for the ravaged medieval city: additions to the Louvre Palace, the Pont Neuf, and the Hôpital Saint Louis as well as the two royal squares.

Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of Louis XIII erected in the centre. In the late 18th century, while most of the nobility moved to the Faubourg Saint-Germain district, the square managed to keep some of its aristocratic owners until the Revolution. It was briefly renamed "Place de la Fabrication-des-Armes" (the place were weapons are produced) then in 1800, it was formally renamed to Place des Vosges in honor of the département of Vosges which was the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the Revolutionary army. From 1814 until 1830, and from 1852 until 1870, the name was changed back to the original by the Restoration monarchs. In 1830 the name was briefly switched to being "Place de la République". Finally in 1870 the revolutionary name was restored.

Today the square is planted with a bosquet of mature lindens set in grass and gravel, surrounded by clipped lindens.

 

 
 

 
View of no. 6 at night

Residents of the Place des Vosges

 
Panoramic view
  •  
    General overview
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    West side
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    North-east side
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    North-east side
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    East side
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    Arcades, east side
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    Sunset, east side
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    Pavillon du Roi, south side
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    Pavillon de la Reine, north side
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    Arcades
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    One of Cortot's four fountains (1825)
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    Real brick and fake brick stand side by side
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    The garden

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ . Other architects, like Louis Métezeau, were responsible for the constructions erected behind these regular façades
  2. ^ Zinsser, Judith (2006). Daring Genius of the Enlightenment. Penguin. p. 21. ISBN 9780143112686.

References

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  • Hilary Ballon, The Paris of Henry IV: Architecture and Urbanism, 1994 ISBN 0-262-52197-0
  • DeJean, Joan. "'Light of the city of light' The Place des Vosges" in her How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City NY:Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN 978-1-60819-591-6. chapter 2, pp. 45–61.
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