Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde is defined by a massive granite obelisk, a three thousand year old pillar from the Temple of Luxor that stands over seventy feet tall. Before the obelisk arrived in eighteen thirty-six, the square held a guillotine. King Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette met their ends on this spot during the Revolution. The executioner used to show the heads to the crowd, and a story persists that the stench of blood was so strong it once frightened a passing herd of cattle.