Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde began its life as a monument to royal ego. Designed in the middle of the eighteenth century as the Place Louis Quinze, the square was created specifically to frame a massive equestrian statue of King Louis the Fifteenth. The monarch intended the space to be a grand, polished tribute to his own reign, located strategically between the Tuileries Garden and the Champs-Élysées. It was an octagonal display of monarchical power, complete with a moat to keep commoners at a distance from the royal sculpture.