The Place des Vosges (), originally the Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. 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 The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. It spreads across parts of the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, 3rd and 4th arrondissement of Paris, 4th Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements on the Rive Droit ...

among the Parisian nobility. Along with the

Place des Victoires The Place des Victoires (; English: Victory Square, 'Square of Victories') is a circular Town square, square in central Paris, located a short distance northeast of the Palais-Royal and straddling the border between the 1st arrondissement of Pari ...

Place Dauphine The Place Dauphine () is a public square located near the western end of the Île de la Cité in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, first arrondissement of Paris. It was initiated by Henry IV of France, Henry IV in 1607, the second of his projects ...

Place Vendôme The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as the Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as the Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madelein ...

and

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde (; ) is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. It was the s ...

, it is one of the five royal squares in Paris.

History

Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by

Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...

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 The Hôtel des Tournelles () is a now-demolished collection of buildings in Paris built from the 14th century onwards north of Place des Vosges. It was named after its many 'tournelles' or little towers. It was owned by the kings of France for ...

and its gardens, which were demolished by

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici (, ; , ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian Republic of Florence, Florentine noblewoman of the Medici family and Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to Henry II of France, King Henry II. Sh ...

. The Place Royale was inaugurated in 1612 with a grand '' carrousel'' to celebrate the engagement of

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...

and

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (; ; born Ana María Mauricia; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was Queen of France from 1615 to 1643 by marriage to King Louis XIII. She was also Queen of Navarre until the kingdom's annexation into the French crown ...

, 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 Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * J ...

, of red brick with strips of stone

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

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

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

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 Louvre Palace (, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxe ...

, the Pont Neuf, and the Hôpital Saint Louis as well as the two royal squares. Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of

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 In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

. 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 In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

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. Place De Vosges at Night

Residents of the Place des Vosges * No. 1bis: Madame de Sevigné was born here * No. 6 (Maison de Victor Hugo):

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

's home from 1832 to 1848, in what was then the Hôtel de Rohan, now a museum devoted to his memory, managed by the City of Paris * No. 7: Sully, Henri IV's great minister * No. 8: poet

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...

and writer Alphonse Daudet * No. 9 (Hôtel de Chaulnes): seat of l' Académie d'Architecture, currently also tenanted by Galerie Historisimus * No. 11:

courtesan A courtesan is a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele. Historically, the term referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or other powerful person. History In European feudal society, the co ...

Marion Delorme from 1639 to 1648 * No. 12:

natural philosopher Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the developme ...

and mathematician

Émilie du Châtelet Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet (; 17 December 1706 – 10 September 1749) was a French mathematician and physicist. Her most recognized achievement is her philosophical magnum opus, ''Institutions de Physique'' ...

* No. 14 (Hôtel de la Rivière): rabbi David Feuerwerker, Antoinette Feuerwerker and Atara Marmor * No. 15: Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, wife of

Cosimo III de' Medici Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder s ...

Grand Duke of Tuscany Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), se ...

. Its ceilings painted by Lebrun are reinstalled in the

Musée Carnavalet The Musée Carnavalet () in Paris is dedicated to the History of Paris, history of the city. The museum occupies two neighboring mansions: the Hôtel Carnavalet and the former Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau. On the advice of Baron Haussmann, ...

. * No. 17:

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Bossuet * No. 20: Prince Obolensky Arnaud Henry Salas-Perez * No. 21:

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

from 1615 to 1627 * No. 23: Post-Impressionist painter Georges Dufrénoy * No. 28 (Pavillon de la Reine): Chabot-Rohan family

Notes

References

* Hilary Ballon, ''The Paris of Henry IV: Architecture and Urbanism,'' 1994 * 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. . chapter 2, pp. 45–61.

External links

Place des Vosges
''Discovering the Historic Place des Vosges: Parisian Charm and Cultural Significance'' *
Satellite image from Google Maps

Place des Vosges audio tour
dans le parc
{{DEFAULTSORT:Place Des Vosges Urban public parks Vosges, Place des Le Marais Buildings and structures in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris Buildings and structures in the 4th arrondissement of Paris Buildings and structures completed in 1612 1612 establishments in France Garden squares

History

See also

Notes

References

External links