![Hoffbauer-Brezet-Temple1734](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Hoffbauer-Brezet-Temple1734.jpg)
The Square du Temple is a garden in
Paris, France
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...
in the
3rd arrondissement, established in 1857. It is one of 24 city squares planned and created by
Georges-Eugène Haussmann
Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann (; 27 March 180911 January 1891), was a French official who served as prefect of Seine (1853–1870), chosen by Emperor Napoleon III to carry out a massive urban renewal programme of n ...
and
Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand
Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand (; 26 October 1817 – 6 December 1891) was a French engineer of the Corps of Bridges and Roads. As a close associate of Baron Haussmann and later as Director of Public Works at Paris City Hall from 1871, he was inst ...
. The Square occupies the site of a medieval
fortress
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
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 ...
, built by the
Knights Templar
, colors = White mantle with a red cross
, colors_label = Attire
, march =
, mascot = Two knights riding a single horse
, equipment ...
. Parts of the fortress were later used as a
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...
during the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, and then demolished by the mid-19th century.
History
Knights Templar
The Knights Templar began in the 12th century, first constructing a fort (Vieux Temple or Old Temple) in
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 ...
. In the 13th century, a new fortress was built as their European headquarters. The enclosure, called ''enclos du Temple'', originally featured a number of buildings important to the running of The Order, and included a church and a massive turreted
keep
A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...
known as ''Grosse Tour'' (great tower) that housed a number of prized possessions of The Order, and a smaller tower called ''Tour de César'' (Caesar's Tower).
The location of the towers is drawn on the floor in front of the town hall, on the . The heavy doors of the Grosse Tour still exist and are kept at
Château de Vincennes
The Château de Vincennes () is a former fortress and royal residence next to the town of Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris, alongside the Bois de Vincennes. It was largely built between 1361 and 1369, and was a preferred residence, after ...
whose great keep, attributed to of Notre-Dame cathedral, is speculated to have been inspired by the nearby Templar fortress.
French Revolution
The Temple is also known for having been the place where the
French royal family was jailed at the time of 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 ...
. Members of the royal family imprisoned at the Temple's tower were:
*
King Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...
, from 13 August 1792 to 21 January 1793, when he was taken to be
guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...
d at the
Place de la Révolution
The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
...
;
*
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
, from 13 August 1792 to 1 August 1793 in the Temple's tower. She was then brought to the
Conciergerie
The Conciergerie () ( en, Lodge) is a former courthouse and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, below the Palais de Justice. It was originally part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, which also ...
, from where she eventually was also taken to the guillotine;
*
Madame Élisabeth Madame may refer to:
* Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French
* Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel
* ''Madame'' ...
, who stayed for 21 months at the tower before being taken on 9 May 1794 to the Conciergerie and guillotined the following day;
*
Louis XVII
Louis XVII (born Louis Charles, Duke of Normandy; 27 March 1785 – 8 June 1795) was the younger son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. His older brother, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, died in June 1789, a little over a m ...
, from 13 August 1792 until his death of tuberculosis at the tower on 8 June 1795, at the age of ten;
*
Princess Marie-Thérèse, who stayed at the tower for three years and four months before being sent into exile.
Demolition
By 1808, the Temple had become a place of
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
for
royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
s, so
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
ordered its demolition, which took two years. Remnants were demolished around 1860 under orders from
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
.
Today
Today its location is a
station of the
Paris Metro
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. Sin ...
, serving the
carreau du temple
The Carreau du Temple is a covered market in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, built in 1863. As part of a public consultation exercise undertaken in 2004 the local population voted that the Carreau should be redeveloped as polyvalent public spac ...
(covered market) and the Palais de Justice (Courthouse) of the third arrondissement.
The garden includes a gazebo, a playground for children, lawns with the largest open to the public from 15 April to 15 October, fountains and a pond with an artificial waterfall, built from rocks brought in from the forest of Fontainebleau. The grid surrounding the square was designed by the architect
Gabriel Davioud
Jean-Antoine-Gabriel Davioud (; 30 October 1824 – 6 April 1881) was a French architect. He worked closely with Baron Haussmann on the transformation of Paris under Napoleon III during the Second Empire. Davioud is remembered for his contribution ...
. The square contains almost 200 varieties of plants, including many exotic species, such as hazel, a
Ginkgo biloba
''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree native to China. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils ...
, a
Honey locust
The honey locust (''Gleditsia triacanthos''), also known as the thorny locust or thorny honeylocust, is a deciduous tree in the family Fabaceae, native to central North America where it is mostly found in the moist soil of river valleys. Honey ...
of America, a
Pterocarya fraxinifolia
''Pterocarya fraxinifolia'' is a species of tree in the Juglandaceae family. It is commonly known as the Caucasian wingnut or Caucasian walnut. It is native to the Caucasian region Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Ukraine and Turk ...
,
goldenrain tree
''Koelreuteria paniculata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae, native to eastern Asia (China and Korea). It was introduced in Europe in 1747, and to America in 1763, and has become a popular landscape tree worldwide. Com ...
,
Cedrela
''Cedrela'' is a genus of several species in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. They are evergreen or dry-season deciduous trees with pinnate leaves, native to the tropical and subtropical New World, from southern Mexico south to northern Argen ...
, and
Chinese quince
''Pseudocydonia sinensis'' or Chinese quince () is a deciduous or semi-evergreen tree in the family Rosaceae, native to southern and eastern China. It is the sole species in the genus ''Pseudocydonia''. Its hard, astringent fruit is used in tra ...
.
In 2007, the square received the "ecological green spaces" awarded by
ECOCERT
ECOCERT is an organic certification organization, founded in France in 1991. It is based in Europe but conducts inspections in over 80 countries, making it one of the largest operations of its kind in the world.
ECOCERT's co-founder and CEO i ...
, the international organic certification.
There are two statues. One represents the songwriter
Pierre-Jean de Béranger
Pierre-Jean de Béranger (19 August 178016 July 1857) was a prolific France, French poet and Chansonnier (singer), chansonnier (songwriter), who enjoyed great popularity and influence in France during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the ...
, who lived on the nearby street which later took his name. This is the second statue of him; a first bronze statue, by
Amédée Donatien Doublemard, was erected with a public subscription held in 1879 by the newspaper "La Chanson", and was destroyed in 1941. It was replaced in 1953 with the present stone statue, by
Henri Lagriffoul.
Another statue, a bust on a pedestal, is dedicated: "To B. Wilhelm 1781-1842, founder of the French " above a medallion portrait that bears the inscription "To
Eugène Delaporte 1818-1886, propagator".
On 26 October 2007, a monument was inaugurated on the lawn of the main square of the Temple. It carries the names and ages of 85 "little ones who did not have time to attend school", Jewish children from 2 months to 6 years living in the 3rd arrondissement and deported between 1942 and 1944 and then murdered in
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
. This monument was unveiled in the presence of several hundred people, city and district elected officials, representatives of associations and the Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France. The memorial is one of several honouring the 11,400 Jewish children deported from France. The lists of children were compiled from school and civic records by
Serge Klarsfeld
Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...
.
In literature
*In
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, Order of the British Empire, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during t ...
's
Aubrey-Maturin series, Capt. Jack Aubrey, Dr. Stephen Maturin and a young Lithuanian officer, Jagiello, are held prisoner at the Temple Prison in ''
The Surgeon's Mate
''The Surgeon's Mate'' is the seventh historical novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series written by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1980. The story is set during the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic Wars.
Buoyed by victory over an American ...
.''
File:Heures d'Étienne Chevalier - Martyre de sainte Catherine.jpg, Miniature from the Hours of Étienne Chevalier
The Hours of Étienne Chevalier is an illuminated book of hours commissioned by Étienne Chevalier, treasurer to king Charles VII of France, from the miniature painter and illuminator Jean Fouquet.
Only 48 of its leaves with 47 miniatures survive ...
with the Temple in the background
File:Garneray - Louis XVI au Temple - P2813 - Musée Carnavalet (cropped).jpg, Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
at the Tour du Temple, by Jean-François Garneray
Jean-François Garneray (1755 in Paris – 11 June 1837 in Auteuil) was a French painter. He was a student of Jacques-Louis David.
Children
His three sons were:
* Ambroise Louis Garneray (1783–1857), sea painter
* Auguste-Siméon Garneray (17 ...
(1755-1837).
File:Marie Antoinette at the Temple Tower.jpg, Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
, in the Temple Tower, attributed to Kucharsky
References
External links
{{Coord, 48, 51, 55, N, 2, 21, 44, E, region:FR-75_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title
Buildings and structures completed in the 13th century
Castles in Île-de-France
Defunct prisons in Paris
Former buildings and structures in Paris
3rd arrondissement of Paris
4th arrondissement of Paris
Buildings and structures demolished in 1810
French Revolution