Place de la Concorde
The guillotine stood here — 1,119 heads fell on this one square.
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Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were among those beheaded here in 1793. Today it's the city's largest square (7.6 hectares), anchored by a 3,300-year-old Egyptian obelisk between the Tuileries and the Champs-Élysées.
What to look for
- The gold pyramid cap on the obelisk, added in 1998 to replace one thought stolen in the 6th century BC; the yellow-granite shaft's hieroglyphs exalt Ramesses II.
- Eight statues on columns ringing the square, each a French city — positioned to form a rough map of France seen from above.
- Hittorff's two 9-metre fountains: tritons or naiads holding fish that spout water, plus six seated allegorical figures with their feet on ship prows.
Since the 2024 Olympics, cars haven't returned to most of the square (partial pedestrianisation announced Jan 2024); a 2026 redesign adds 3.2 hectares of greenery and routes traffic to the outer edges with far fewer lanes.
Place de la Concorde is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Place de la BastilleThe prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.