Place des Vosges
Encyclopedia
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.
was built by Henri IV
from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m x 140 m), it embodied the first European program of royal city planning. It was built on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles
and its gardens: at a tournament at the Tournelles, a royal residence, Henri II
was wounded and died. Catherine de Medicis had the Gothic pile demolished, and she removed to the Louvre.
The Place des Vosges, inaugurated in 1612 with a grand carrousel
to celebrate the wedding of Louis XIII
and Anne of Austria
, is the prototype of all the residential squares of European cities that were to come. What was new about the Place Royale in 1612 was that the housefronts were all built to the same design, probably by Baptiste du Cerceau, of red brick with strips of stone quoins over vaulted arcades that stand on square pillars. The steeply-pitched blue slate roofs are pierced with discreet small-paned dormers above the pedimented dormers that stand upon the cornices. Only the north range was built with the vaulted ceilings that the "galleries" were meant to have. Two pavilions that rise higher than the unified roofline of the square center the north and south faces and offer access to the square through triple arches. Though they are designated the Pavilion of the King and of the Queen, no royal personage has ever lived in the aristocratic square. The Place des Vosges initiated subsequent developments of Paris that created a suitable urban background for the French aristocracy.
Before the square was completed, Henri IV ordered the Place Dauphine to be laid out. Within a mere five-year period the king oversaw an unmatched building scheme for the ravaged medieval city: additions to the Louvre
, the Pont Neuf
, and the Hôpital Saint Louis as well as the two royal squares.
Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of Louis XIII
erected in the center (there were no garden plots until 1680). The original was melted down in the Revolution; the present version, begun in 1818 by Louis Dupaty
and completed by Jean-Pierre Cortot
, replaced it in 1825. The square was renamed in 1799 when the département of the Vosges
became the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the Revolutionary army
. The Restoration returned the old royal name, but the short-lived Second Republic
restored the revolutionary one in 1848.
Today the square is planted with a bosquet
of mature linden
s set in grass and gravel, surrounded by clipped lindens.
Residents of the Place des Vosges
It is served by lines 1, 5, and 8.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
It is located in the Marais
Le Marais
Le Marais is a historic district in Paris, France. Long the aristocratic district of Paris, it hosts many outstanding buildings of historic and architectural importance...
district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd
IIIe arrondissement
The 3rd arrondissement of Paris, situated on the right bank of the River Seine, is the second smallest in area after the 2nd arrondissement. The arrondissement contains the northern, quieter part of the medieval district of Le Marais...
and 4th
IVe arrondissement
The 4th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France.Situated on the Right Bank of the River Seine, it is bordered to the west by the 1st arrondissement; to the north by the 3rd, to the east by the 11th and 12th, and to the south by the Seine and the...
arrondissements
Arrondissements of Paris
The city of Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements municipaux administrative districts, more simply referred to as arrondissements . These are not to be confused with departmental arrondissements, which subdivide the 101 French départements...
of Paris.
History
Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des VosgesVosges mountains
For the department of France of the same name, see Vosges.The Vosges are a range of low mountains in eastern France, near its border with Germany. They extend along the west side of the Rhine valley in a northnortheast direction, mainly from Belfort to Saverne...
was built by Henri 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....
from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m x 140 m), it embodied the first European program of royal city planning. It was built on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles
Hôtel des Tournelles
The hôtel des Tournelles was a now-demolished collection of buildings in Paris built from the 14th century onwards, to the north of the site of what is now place des Vosges. It is named after its many 'tournelles' or little towers....
and its gardens: at a tournament at the Tournelles, a royal residence, Henri II
Henry II of France
Henry II was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559.-Early years:Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, the son of Francis I and Claude, Duchess of Brittany .His father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by his sworn enemy,...
was wounded and died. Catherine de Medicis had the Gothic pile demolished, and she removed to the Louvre.
The Place des Vosges, inaugurated in 1612 with a grand carrousel
Carrousel
Carrousel is a booklet published in 1987 containing three short texts written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1923 for "Karussel", a Russian cabaret.-Content:The three texts are:...
to celebrate the wedding of Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
and Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria
Anne of Austria was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Spanish Infanta by birth...
, is the prototype of all the residential squares of European cities that were to come. What was new about the Place Royale in 1612 was that the housefronts were all built to the same design, probably by Baptiste du Cerceau, of red brick with strips of stone quoins over vaulted arcades that stand on square pillars. The steeply-pitched blue slate roofs are pierced with discreet small-paned dormers above the pedimented dormers that stand upon the cornices. Only the north range was built with the vaulted ceilings that the "galleries" were meant to have. Two pavilions that rise higher than the unified roofline of the square center the north and south faces and offer access to the square through triple arches. Though they are designated the Pavilion of the King and of the Queen, no royal personage has ever lived in the aristocratic square. The Place des Vosges initiated subsequent developments of Paris that created a suitable urban background for the French aristocracy.
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...
, 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 the Hôpital Saint Louis as well as the two royal squares.
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
erected in the center (there were no garden plots until 1680). The original was melted down in the Revolution; the present version, begun in 1818 by Louis Dupaty
Louis Dupaty
Louis-Marie-Charles-Henri Mercier Dupaty was a French sculptor.The eldest son of the magistrate Jean-Baptiste Mercier Dupaty and brother of the writer and académicien Emmanuel Mercier Dupaty, he was destined for the magistrature but preferred the arts...
and completed by Jean-Pierre Cortot
Jean-Pierre Cortot
Jean-Pierre Cortot was a French sculptor.- Life :Cortot was born and died in Paris. He was educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and took the Prix de Rome in 1809, residing in the Villa Medici in Rome from 1810 to 1813.Cortot worked in an austere, correct, academic neo-classical style,...
, replaced it in 1825. The square was renamed in 1799 when the département of the Vosges
Vosges
Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been...
became the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the Revolutionary army
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...
. The Restoration returned the old royal name, but the short-lived Second Republic
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...
restored the revolutionary one in 1848.
Bosquet
In the French formal garden, a bosquet is a formal plantation of trees, at least five of identical species planted as a quincunx, or set in strict regularity as to rank and file, so that the trunks line up as one passes along either face...
of mature linden
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
s set in grass and gravel, surrounded by clipped lindens.
Residents of the Place des Vosges
- No. 1bis Madame de SevignéMarie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de SévignéMarie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter.-Life:...
was born here - No. 6, "Maison de Victor Hugo"Maison de Victor HugoMaison de Victor Hugo is a museum, operated by the City of Paris, which preserves the house that Victor Hugo lived in for 16 years from 1832–1848.-History:...
Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
from 1832–1848, in what was then the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée, now a museum devoted to his memory, managed by the City of Paris - No. 7 SullyMaximilien de Béthune, duc de SullyMaximilien de Béthune, first Duke of Sully was the doughty soldier, French minister, staunch Huguenot and faithful right-hand man who assisted Henry IV of France in the rule of France.-Early years:...
, Henri IV's great minister - No. 8 poet Théophile GautierThéophile GautierPierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
and writer Alphonse DaudetAlphonse DaudetAlphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune... - No. 9 (Hôtel de Chaulnes), seat of the Academy of Architecture, currently also tenanted by Galerie Historisimus
- No. 11 occupied from 1639-1648 by the courtesan Marion DelormeMarion DelormeMarion Delorme was a French courtesan known for her relationships with the important men of her time.- Early life, life as a courtesan, early death :...
- No. 14 (Hôtel de la Rivière). Its ceilings painted by Lebrun are reinstalled in the Musée Carnavalet. Rabbi David FeuerwerkerDavid Feuerwerker- Born in Geneva :He was born on October 2, 1912, at 11 Rue du Mont-Blanc, in Geneva, Switzerland. He was the seventh of eleven children. His father Jacob Feuerwerker was born in Sighet, now Sighetu Marmatiei, Maramureş, then Hungary, now Rumania...
, Antoinette FeuerwerkerAntoinette FeuerwerkerAntoinette Feuerwerker was a French jurist and an active fighter in the French Resistance during the Second World War.-Biography:...
and Atara MarmorAtara MarmorAtara Marmor was a French historian.- Biography :... - No. 15 Marguerite Louise d'OrléansMarguerite Louise d'OrléansMarguerite Louise d'Orléans was Grand Duchess of Tuscany, as the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici. Deprived of her lover, Charles V of Lorraine, and yearning for France, Marguerite Louise despised her husband and his family, whom she often quarrelled with and falsely suspected of...
, wife of Cosimo III de' Medici - No. 17 former residence of BossuetJacques-Bénigne BossuetJacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist....
- No. 21 Cardinal Richelieu from 1615–1627
- No. 23 post-impressionist painter Georges DufrénoyGeorges DufrénoyGeorges Dufrénoy was a French post-Impressionist painter associated with Fauvism.-Biography:He was born in Thiais, France. His family lived at 2 Place des Vosges in Paris in a historic 17th century building in which he lived all his life...
Metro station
The Place des Vosges is:It is served by lines 1, 5, and 8.
External links
- The official guide, partner of the Paris Tourist Office
- http://www.paris.org/Monuments/Vosges/
- Satellite image from Google Maps
- http://www.letthemtalk.com/html/pariswalks/placedesvosges.html Place des Vosges audio tour
- dans le parc