Square Raoul Nordling

Square Raoul Nordling features a bronze bust of a man with a mustache, tucked into a small green space between high apartment walls. Raoul Nordling served as the Swedish Consul General in Paris during the Second World War. He spent his final days in the city negotiating with German commanders to spare the local population and the architecture from destruction as Allied forces approached in August nineteen forty-four. The city stands today because Nordling convinced Dietrich von Choltitz to ignore orders to burn Paris.