Place des Vosges

The Place des Vosges stands as the oldest planned square in Paris, a symmetrical masterpiece of red brick and cream stone that transformed the city's approach to urban design. Before this elegant expanse existed, the site held the royal palace of the Hôtel des Tournelles. Its history took a dark turn in fifteen fifty-nine when King Henri II was mortally wounded during a jousting tournament in the palace courtyard. The tragedy so deeply affected his widow, Catherine de Medici, that she ordered the entire royal residence demolished, leaving the grounds as a vacant space for decades until King Henri IV commissioned this square in sixteen-oh-five.