Place Vendôme
Encyclopedia
Ier arrondissement
The 1st arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France.Situated principally on the right bank of the River Seine, it also includes the west end of the Île de la Cité...
of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine
Église de la Madeleine
L'église de la Madeleine is a Roman Catholic church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army...
. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix
Rue de la Paix, Paris
The rue de la Paix is a fashionable shopping street in the center of Paris. Located in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, running north from Place Vendôme and ending at the Opéra Garnier, it is best known for its jewellers, such as the shop opened by Cartier SA in 1898...
. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the corners give the rectangular Place Vendôme the aspect of an octagon. The original Vendôme Column at the center of the square was erected by Napoleon I
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
; it was torn down on 16 May 1871, by decree of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
, but subsequently re-erected and remains a prominent feature on the square today.
History
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
and called Place des Conquêtes, to be renamed Place Louis le Grand, when the conquests proved temporary; an over life-size equestrian statue of the king was set up in its centre, donated by the city authorities; this was by François Girardon
François Girardon
François Girardon was a French sculptor.He was born at Troyes. As a boy he had for master a joiner and wood-carver of his native town, named Baudesson, under whom he is said to have worked at the chateau of Liebault, where he attracted the notice of Chancellor Séguier...
(1699) and is supposed to have been the first large modern equestrian statue to be cast in a single piece. It was destroyed in the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
; however, there is a small version in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
. This led to the popular joke that while Henri IV dwelled among the people by the Pont Neuf
Pont Neuf
The Pont Neuf is, despite its name, the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. Its name, which was given to distinguish it from older bridges that were lined on both sides with houses, has remained....
, and Louis XIII among the aristocrats of the Place des Vosges
Place des Vosges
The Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris.It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris.- History :...
, Louis XIV preferred the company of the tax farmers
Tax farming
Farming is a technique of financial management, namely the process of commuting , by its assignment by legal contract to a third party, a future uncertain revenue stream into fixed and certain periodic rents, in consideration for which commutation a discount in value received is suffered...
in the Place Vendôme; each reflecting the group they had favoured in life.
The site of the square was formerly the hôtel of César, duc de Vendôme
Vendôme
Vendôme is a commune in the Centre region of France.-Administration:Vendôme is the capital of the arrondissement of Vendôme in the Loir-et-Cher department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It has a tribunal of first instance.-Geography:...
, the illegitimate son of Henry IV
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées
Gabrielle d'Estrées
Gabrielle d'Estrées, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, Marchioness of Monceaux was a French mistress of King Henry IV of France, born at either the Château de la Bourdaisière in Montlouis-sur-Loire, in Touraine, or at the château de Cœuvres, in Picardy....
. Hardouin-Mansart bought the building and its gardens, with the idea of converting it into building lots as a profitable speculation. The plan did not materialize, and Louis XIV's minister of finance, Louvois
François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois
François Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois was the French Secretary of State for War for a significant part of the reign of Louis XIV. Louvois and his father, Michel le Tellier, would increase the French Army to 400,000 soldiers, an army that would fight four wars between 1667 and 1713...
, purchased the piece of ground, with the object of building a square, modelled on the successful Place des Vosges
Place des Vosges
The Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris.It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris.- History :...
of the previous century. Louvois came into financial difficulties and nothing came of his project, either. After his death, the king purchased the plot and commissioned Hardouin-Mansart to design a housefront that the buyers of plots round the square would agree to adhere to. When the state finances ran low, the financier John Law
John Law (economist)
John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade...
took on the project, built himself a residence behind one of the façades, and the square was complete by 1720, just as his paper-money Mississippi bubble
Mississippi Company
The "Mississippi Company" became the "Company of the West" and expanded as the "Company of the Indies" .-The Banque Royale:...
burst. Law suffered a major blow when he was forced to pay back taxes amounting to some tens of millions of dollars. With no way to pay such an amount, he was forced to sell the property he owned on the square. The buyers were members of the exiled Bourbon-Condé family who later returned to the country to reclaim their land in the town of Vendôme
Vendôme
Vendôme is a commune in the Centre region of France.-Administration:Vendôme is the capital of the arrondissement of Vendôme in the Loir-et-Cher department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It has a tribunal of first instance.-Geography:...
itself. Between 1720 and 1797, they acquired much of the square, including a freehold to parts of the site on which the Hôtel Ritz Paris
Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...
now stands and in which they still maintain apartments. Their intention to restore a family palace on the site is dependent on the possible intentions of the adjacent Justice Ministry to expand its premises.
The Vendôme Column
NapoleonNapoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
erected the original column, modelled after Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
, to celebrate the victory of Austerlitz
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...
; its veneer of 425 spiraling bas-relief bronze plates were made out of cannon taken from the combined armies of Europe, according to his propaganda (the usual figure given is hugely exaggerated: 133 cannon were actually captured at Austerlitz). These plates were designed by the sculptor Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret
Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret
Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret was a French painter, pioneer lithographer and designer who studied with Jacques-Louis David....
and executed by a team of sculptors including Jean-Joseph Foucou
Jean-Joseph Foucou
Jean-Joseph Foucou was a French sculptor.Foucou was born at Riez, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. A student at the École de peinture et de sculpture of Marseille, he went to Paris, where he entered the workshop of Jean-Jacques Caffieri...
, Louis-Simon Boizot
Louis-Simon Boizot
Louis-Simon Boizot was a French sculptor whose models for biscuit figures for Sèvres porcelain are better-known than his large-scale sculptures.- Biography :...
, François Joseph Bosio
François Joseph Bosio
Baron François Joseph Bosio was a French sculptor who achieved distinction in the first quarter of the nineteenth century with his work for Napoleon and for the restored French monarchy.-Biography:...
, Lorenzo Bartolini
Lorenzo Bartolini
Lorenzo Bartolini was an Italian sculptor who infused his neoclassicism with a strain of sentimental piety and naturalistic detail which led him furthermore in the future, while he drew inspiration from the sculpture of the Florentine Renaissance rather than the overpowering influence of Antonio...
, Claude Ramey
Claude Ramey
Claude Ramey was a French sculptor.-Life:Ramey was born in Dijon and received his art training in the École de Dessin in that city under François Devosge. He then went to Paris and studied Sculpture with Etienne Pierre Adrien Gois...
, François Rude
François Rude
François Rude was a French sculptor. He was the stepfather of Paul Cabet, a sculptor.Born in Dijon, he worked at his father's trade as a stovemaker till the age of sixteen, but received training in drawing from François Devosges, where he learned that a strong, simple contour was an invaluable...
, Corbet, Clodion and Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel
Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel
Henri-Joseph Ruxthiel was a French sculptor. He belonged to the neoclassicism movement....
. A statue of Napoleon, bare-headed, crowned with laurels and holding a sword in his right hand and a globe surmounted with a statue of Victory (as in Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker
Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker
Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker is a colossal heroic nude statue by the Italian artist Antonio Canova, of Napoleon I of France in the guise of the Roman god Mars. He holds a gilded Nike or Victory standing on an orb in his right hand and a staff in his left. It was produced between 1802 and 1806...
) in his left hand, was placed atop the column
In 1816, taking advantage of the Allied occupying force, a mob of men and horses had attached a cable to the neck of the statue of Napoleon atop the column, but it had refused to budge - one woman quipped "If the Emperor is as solid on his throne as this statue is on its column, he's nowhere near descending the throne". After the Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
the statue was pulled down and melted down to provide the bronze for the recast equestrian statue of Henry IV
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
on the Pont Neuf
Pont Neuf
The Pont Neuf is, despite its name, the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. Its name, which was given to distinguish it from older bridges that were lined on both sides with houses, has remained....
(as was bronze from sculptures on the Column of the Grande Armée
Column of the Grande Armée
The Column of the Grande Armée is a 53 metre high Doric order triumphal column on the Rue Napoleon in Wimille, near Boulogne-sur-Mer, France.-To 1815:The column was intended to commemorate a successful invasion of England The Column of the Grande Armée (French - Colonne de la grande Armée or...
at Boulogne-sur-Mer), though the statuette of Victory is still to be seen in the salon Napoléon of the Hôtel des Monnaies
Hôtel des Monnaies, Paris
The hôtel des Monnaies is an 18th century building on the quai Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It has housed the Monnaie de Paris ever since its construction...
(which also contains a model of the column and a likeness of Napoleon's face copied from his death mask
Napoleon's Death Mask
Napoleon's Death Mask is a marble cast mold of the face of Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French. Much mystery and controversy surrounds the origins and whereabouts of the most original cast moulds...
). A replacement statue of Napoléon, however, was erected by Louis-Philippe
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
in modern dress (a tricorn hat, boots and a redingote
Redingote
The redingote is a type of coat that has had several forms over time. The name is derived from a French alteration of the English "riding coat", an example of reborrowing.-Women's redingote:...
), and a better, more augustly classicizing one by Louis-Napoléon (later Napoléon III)
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
.
During the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
in 1871, the painter Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
proposed the column to be disassembled and re-erected in the Hôtel des Invalides
Les Invalides
Les Invalides , officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides , is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's...
. Courbet argued that:
His project was not adopted, and on 12 April 1871 legislation was passed authorizing the dismantling of the imperial symbol. When the column was taken down on 8 May its bronze plates were preserved. After the suppression of the Paris Commune by Adolphe Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...
, the decision was made to rebuild the column with the statue of Napoléon restored at its apex. As a result of his earlier involvement, Gustave Courbet was condemned to pay the costs of rebuilding the monument, estimated at 323,000 francs
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
, in yearly installments of 10,000 francs, for the following thirty-three years. Unable to pay, Courbet went into self-imposed exile in Switzerland, where shortly afterwards he died, without having made the first payment. In 1874, the column was re-erected at the center of Place Vendôme with a copy of the original statue on top. An inner staircase leading to the top is no longer open to the public.
Features
At the centre of the square's long sides, Hardouin-Mansart's range of Corinthian pilastersCorinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
breaks forward under a pediment, to create palace-like fronts. The arcading of the formally rusticated ground floors does not provide an arcaded passageway as at Place des Vosges. The architectural linking of the windows from one floor to the next, and the increasing arch of their windowheads, provide an upward spring to the horizontals formed by ranks of windows. Originally the square was accessible by a single street and preserved an aristocratic quiet, except when the annual fair was held there. Then Napoléon opened the Rue de la Paix
Rue de la Paix, Paris
The rue de la Paix is a fashionable shopping street in the center of Paris. Located in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, running north from Place Vendôme and ending at the Opéra Garnier, it is best known for its jewellers, such as the shop opened by Cartier SA in 1898...
, and the 19th century filled the Place Vendôme with traffic. It was only after the opening in 1875 of the Palais Garnier
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier, , is an elegant 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier...
on the other side of the rue de la Paix that the centre of the Parisian fashionable life started gravitating around the rue de la Paix and the Place Vendôme.
The Place Vendôme has been renowned for its fashionable and deluxe hotels such as the Ritz
Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...
. Many famous dress designers have had their salons in the square. The only remaining one is the shirtmaker Charvet, at number 28, whose store has been on the Place since 1877. Since 1718, the Ministry of Justice, also known as the "Chancellerie", is located at the Hotel de Bourvallais located at numbers 11 and 13. Right on the other side of the Place, number 14 houses the Paris office of JP Morgan, the investment bank, and number 20 the office of AXA Private Equity
AXA Private Equity
AXA Private Equity is a diversified private equity firm with $ 25 billion of assets managed or advised and with an international reach across Europe, North America and Asia...
.
Place Vendôme
Place Vendôme (film)
Place Vendôme is a 1998 film directed by Nicole Garcia, starring Catherine Deneuve, and named after the Place Vendôme in Paris.Deneuve won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice Film Festival for her role in the film.-Plot:...
was a 1998 movie
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
starring Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
.
Famous residents
- Abel-François Poisson, marquis de MarignyAbel-François Poisson, marquis de MarignyAbel-François Poisson de Vandières, marquis de Marigny and marquis de Menars , often referred to simply as marquis de Marigny, was a French nobleman who served as the director general of the King's Buildings...
, (1727–1781), the brother of Madame de PompadourMadame de PompadourJeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
, at 8, Place Vendôme - Claude Dupin, (1686–1769), the financier and contracted tax-collector (fermier-général), at 10, Place Vendôme
- Augustin Blondel de GagnyAugustin Blondel de GagnyAugustin Blondel de Gagny was a French connoisseur of the arts and a collector whose series of Paris auction sales, which took place soon after his death were highwater marks of the history of collecting in 18th-century France. Paintings and sculptures that passed through Blondel de Gagny's...
(1695—1776), art collector - Samuel Jean de PozziSamuel Jean de PozziSamuel-Jean Pozzi was a French surgeon and gynecologist. He was also interested in anthropology and neurology.-Life:Samuel-Jean Pozzy was born in Bergerac, Dordogne to a family of Italian/Swiss descent. His father, Benjamin Dominique Pozzy, was a minister of the Reformed Church of France...
, (1846–1918), the surgeon and gynecologist, at 10, Place Vendôme - Frédéric ChopinFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, (1810–1849), the PolishPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
composerComposerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, at 12, Place Vendôme, where he died. - Coco ChanelCoco ChanelGabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...
, (1883–1971), the fashion designer, at 15, Place Vendôme, (the Hôtel Ritz ParisHôtel Ritz ParisThe Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...
) - Franz MesmerFranz MesmerFranz Anton Mesmer , sometimes, albeit incorrectly, referred to as Friedrich Anton Mesmer, was a German physician with an interest in astronomy, who theorised that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called magnétisme animal ...
, (1734–1815), the German physician and discoverer of animal magnetismAnimal magnetismAnimal magnetism , in modern usage, refers to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma. As postulated by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, the term referred to a supposed magnetic fluid or ethereal medium believed to reside in the bodies of animate beings...
, at 16, Place Vendôme - Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione (1837–1899), the former mistress of Napoleon III, lived in seclusion from the 1870s until the 1890s at 26, Place Vendôme, above BoucheronBoucheronBoucheron is a French jewellery house.-History:The House of Boucheron is a French family dynasty founded by Frederic Boucheron in 1858....
- Prince Jefri BolkiahPrince Jefri BolkiahPrince Jefri Bolkiah, full name His Royal Highness Pengiran Digadong Sahibul Mal Pengiran Muda Jefri Bolkiah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien , is a member of the Brunei Royal Family...
, in the 1990s
Metro station
The Place Vendôme is:It is served by lines 1, 3, 7, 8, 12, and 14.
