The Place des Vosges (), originally Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It is located in the ''

Marais Marais (, meaning "marsh") may refer to: People * Marais (given name) * Marais (surname) Other uses * Le Marais, historic district of Paris * Théâtre du Marais, the name of several theatres and theatrical troupes in Paris, France * Marais (c ...

'' district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

and 4th

arrondissements An arrondissement (, , ) is any of various administrative divisions of France, Belgium, Haiti, certain other Francophone countries, as well as the Netherlands. Europe France The 101 French departments are divided into 342 ''arrondissements'', ...

of Paris. It was a fashionable and expensive square to live in during the 17th and 18th centuries, and one of the main reasons for the chic nature of

Le Marais The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. Having once been an aristocratic district, it is home to many buildings of historic and architectural importance. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th arr ...

among the Parisian nobility.

History

Originally known as Place Royale, ''Place des

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

'' was built by

Henri IV Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m × 140 m), it embodied one of the first European programs of royal city planning (The Plaza Mayor in Madrid, begun in 1590, precedes it). It was built on the site of the

Hôtel des Tournelles The hôtel des Tournelles () is a now-demolished collection of buildings in Paris built from the 14th century onwards north of place des Vosges. It was named after its many 'tournelles' or little towers. It was owned by the kings of France for ...

and its gardens: At a tournament at the Tournelles, a royal residence, Henri II was wounded and died.

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...

had the Gothic complex demolished, and she moved to the

Louvre Palace The Louvre Palace (french: link=no, Palais du Louvre, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Ga ...

Place des Vosges, inaugurated in 1612 with a grand ''

carrousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round ( international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in SA) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular ...

'' to celebrate the engagement of

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

and

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 unti ...

, is a prototype of 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

Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau (1544/47–1590) was a French architect who designed the Pont Neuf (1579), spanning the Seine, Paris, and became supervisor of the royal works under Henri III and Henri IV, including the Louvre. Several ''hôtel ...

of red brick with strips of stone quoins over vaulted

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

s 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 has ever lived in the aristocratic square, except for

in the Pavilion de la Reine, for a short while. Place des Vosges initiated subsequent developments of Paris that created a suitable urban background for the French aristocracy and nobility. The square was often the place for the nobility to chat, and served as a meeting place for them. This was so until the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

. Before the square was completed, Henri IV ordered The

Place Dauphine The Place Dauphine is a public square located near the western end of the Île de la Cité in the first arrondissement of Paris. It was initiated by Henry IV in 1607, the second of his projects for public squares in Paris, the first being the P ...

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

, the

Pont Neuf The Pont Neuf (, "New Bridge") is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC ...

, and the Hôpital Saint Louis as well as the two royal squares. Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of

erected in the center (there were no garden plots until 1680). In the late 18th century, while most of the nobility moved to the

Faubourg Saint-Germain ''Faubourg Saint-Germain'' () is a historic district of Paris, France. The ''Faubourg'' has long been known as the favourite home of the French nobility, French high nobility and hosts many aristocratic ''hôtels particuliers''. It is currently pa ...

district, the square managed to keep some of its aristocratic owners until the

. It was renamed in 1799 when the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

'' of the

became the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the

Revolutionary army In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

. The

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

returned the old royal name, but the short-lived Second Republic restored the revolutionary one in 1870. Today the square is planted with a

bosquet In the French formal garden, a ''bosquet'' (French, from Italian ''bosco'', "grove, wood") is a formal plantation of trees in a wide variety of forms, some open at the bottom and others not. At a minimum a bosquet can be five trees of identical s ...

of mature lindens set in grass and gravel, surrounded by clipped lindens. Place De Vosges at Night

Residents of place des Vosges * No. 1bis Madame de Sevigné was born here * No. 6, “Maison de Victor Hugo”, the writer’s home from 1832 to 1848, in what was then the Hôtel de Rohan (the Princes of Guéménée line), now a museum devoted to his memory, managed by the City of Paris * No. 7 Sully, Henri IV’s great minister * No. 8 poet

Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rem ...

and writer

Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ...

* No. 9 (Hôtel de Chaulnes), seat of l’ Académie d’Architecture, currently also tenanted by Galerie Historisimus * No. 11 occupied from 1639–1648 by the courtesan Marion Delorme *No. 12 occupied by

Émilie du Châtelet Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet (; 17 December 1706 – 10 September 1749) was a French natural philosopher and mathematician from the early 1730s until her death due to complications during childbirth in 1749. ...

* No. 14 (Hôtel de la Rivière). Its ceilings painted by Lebrun are reinstalled in the

Musée Carnavalet The Musée Carnavalet in Paris is dedicated to the history of the city. The museum occupies two neighboring mansions: the Hôtel Carnavalet and the former Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau. On the advice of Baron Haussmann, the civil servant wh ...

. Rabbi David Feuerwerker, Antoinette Feuerwerker and Atara Marmor * No. 15 Marguerite Louise d’Orléans, wife of

Cosimo III de' Medici Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinan ...

Grand Duke of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

. * No. 17 former residence of

Bossuet Bossuet is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), French bishop and theologian, uncle of Louis * Louis Bossuet Louis Bossuet (22 February 1663 – 15 January 1742) was a French parle ...

* No. 20 Prince Obolensky

Arnaud Henry Salas-Perez Arnaud may refer to: People * Arnaud (given name) or Arnauld (formerly Arnoul), the French form of the German given name Arnold * Arnaud (surname) or Arnauld (formerly Arnoul), the French form of the name Arnold * Arnauld family, a noble French f ...

* No. 21

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...

from 1615 to 1627 * No. 23 post-impressionist painter

Georges Dufrénoy Georges Dufrénoy (June 20, 1870December 9, 1943) 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 ...

* No. 28 (Pavillon de la Reine) Family of Chabot-Rohan

Notes

References

* Hilary Ballon, ''The Paris of Henry IV: Architecture and Urbanism,'' 1994 *DeJean, Joan. "'Light of the city of light' The Place des Vosges"in her ''How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City'' NY:Bloomsbury, 2014. . chapter 2, pp. 45–61.

External links

The official guide, partner of the Paris Tourist Office
*
Satellite image from Google Maps

Place des Vosges audio tour
dans le parc
{{DEFAULTSORT:Place Des Vosges Urban public parks Vosges, Place des Le Marais Buildings and structures in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris Buildings and structures in the 4th arrondissement of Paris Buildings and structures completed in 1612 1612 establishments in France Garden squares

History

See also

Notes

References

External links