Insurrection of 10 August 1792

The Tuileries Palace once occupied this space, marked today by the open expanse of the garden. On August tenth, seventeen ninety-two, a massive crowd of revolutionaries and federated soldiers descended upon these grounds to end the French monarchy. King Louis the Sixteenth fled through the gardens to seek protection from the Legislative Assembly. Inside, his Swiss Guard fought a desperate, losing battle against the insurgents throughout the state apartments, leaving the grand hallways splattered with blood before the royal family was formally imprisoned.