Place Vendôme

Place Vendôme is one of the five “royal squares” of Paris, which is spread out in the historic center of the city, north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. It was erected during the reign of Louis XIV and was designed to house the equestrian statue of the Sun King, the Mint, the Academy, the library and luxury mansions. The name “Place Vendôme” was given to the palace once owned by César de Bourbon, the illegitimate son of French King Henry IV the Great and ancestor of the Vendômes.

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Highlights

The octagonal square is surrounded by uniform buildings in the Classicist style and looks very monumental. Here stands the famous Ritz Hotel, where many famous politicians, writers and actors have stayed. On Place Vendôme also rises the mansion from the balcony of which Georges Jacques Danton in 1792 announced the establishment of the first republic.

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Tourists come to the historic Place Vendôme to admire the tall column crowned by the statue of Napoleon and to take memorable photos against the facades of the palaces. Some come here to shop in the luxurious jewelry stores, considered the best in Paris. Place Vendôme is popular with designers and is home to several fashion boutiques.

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History of the construction of Place Vendôme

In 1680, the palace, owned by the powerful and wealthy Duke of Vendôme, was purchased by the French king. Louis XIV’s court architect Jules Ardouin-Mansart designed the project, and in 1699 a spacious square was laid out on the site of the palace building. On it, according to the king’s wish, was his equestrian statue. This monument was built by the French sculptor François Girardon and stood in Place Vendôme for exactly 100 years – until 1792.

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The Sun King spent a great deal of money on the reconstruction of his beloved Versailles. In addition, considerable sums from the treasury went to the constant wars that France fought with other European countries. Louis XIV had no money to continue the construction of Place Vendôme, so for a long time around the statue of the French monarch there were only the facades of buildings, and the space behind them was empty.

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To continue construction, it was necessary that someone bought the land behind the decorative facades, and the proceeds could be used to build new houses. But at first there were no willing to invest their own money in the improvement of Place Vendôme.

The solution to the problem was found by John Law, a Scottish financier who proposed to reform the circulation of money. He created a bank that issued banknotes, acquired land around Place Vendôme and began selling it to anyone who wanted it for paper money. There was no shortage of buyers, and construction resumed.

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By 1720, all the houses around the square were built. They were similar buildings, decorated with arcades and columns of the Corinthian order. In their attics Jules Ardouin-Mansart allocated additional rooms with a sloping ceiling. The attic windows were not masked, as was customary at the time, but, on the contrary, decorated with elegant moldings. This is how attics were invented. In addition, the architect created facades of buildings consisting of three parts. The three-part system he found later formed the basis of all Parisian buildings.

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Famous buildings on Place Vendôme

No. 11 Place Vendôme today houses the Ministry of Justice and the French Chancellery. The building once belonged to the stockbroker Poisson. The businessman was dishonest and made dubious deals, for which he ended up in the Bastille. To get out, he was forced to sell the mansion belonging to him to the authorities of Paris.

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The neighboring house number 12 in the 30-40 years of the XIX century occupied the representation of the Russian ambassador, and in 1849 here lived the famous Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frederic Chopin.

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A marble meter was hung on house No. 13 in 1795. It was a new measure of length for Parisians, so the Paris authorities wanted to introduce it to the city’s inhabitants.

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One of Paris’ most chic hotels, the Ritz, occupies No. 15 Place Vendôme. It received its name in honor of the founder Cesar Ritz. The elite hotel has always been distinguished by the splendor of its interiors and the highest level of service, so many world celebrities have stayed there.

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In the house number 16 lived Austrian doctor and healer Franz Anton Mesmer. He believed that the planets have a healing effect on people and created the doctrine of “animal magnetism” or mesmerism. The healer’s patients were prominent French aristocrats, and he managed to earn a lot of money. In 1784, the healer’s activities were examined by two scientific commissions and recognized as fraudulent. For this reason Mesmer was forced to leave Paris and fled to England.

The owners of houses Nos. 17 and 19 were members of the wealthy Crozat family of bankers, who during the reign of Louis XIV were considered the richest people in France. Pierre Crozat (1661-1740) managed to amass a collection of 400 paintings, 19 thousand drawings and 1.5 thousand carved stones. The private collection on Place Vendôme was considered one of the best in Paris. It is noteworthy that most of the paintings belonging to Pierre Crozat were acquired by the Russian Empress Catherine II. She bought the paintings from his heirs, and the French writer Denis Diderot acted as an intermediary in the transaction. Today, famous paintings by Raphael, Giorgione, Rubens, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Van Dyck and Murillo adorn the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

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Vendôme Column

In place of the monument to the king who was overthrown by the French Revolution stands another unusual monument. It is a column 44.3 meters high. In 1806, Napoleon wanted to see in the center of the French capital a majestic monument in honor of the triumphant victories of his army. The Place for the “Column of Victory” was chosen as Place Vendôme, and its prototype was the famous column of Trajan, decorating the Roman forum.

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The Roman column made of Carrara marble was 38 meters high. Napoleon wanted Paris to have a taller and more majestic monument. The new column was built of stone and covered with bas-reliefs cast from trophy guns that Napoleon’s troops had captured from the Russian and Austrian armies. The bronze bas-reliefs are arranged in a spiral from the base to the top of the monument and were made according to the designs of Jean-Baptiste Leper. The 425 bas-reliefs reflect the actions of Napoleon’s troops during the victorious campaign of 1805.

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Today, the column on Place Vendôme is crowned by the third statue of Napoleon. It depicts the emperor in a short Roman cloak. On his head is a laurel wreath, and in his hands Napoleon holds a sword and a globe with a winged goddess of Victory. The author of the expressive monument is the French sculptor Auguste Dumont (1801-1884). Under the statue is a rectangular platform with a railing.

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How to get there

Place Vendôme is located in the historic center of the French capital, near the Opéra metro station, where branches 3, 7 and 8 of the Paris Metro intersect. The Tuileries station, through which branch 1 passes, is also close to the square.