Place Vendôme

A royal square of perfect symmetry

Laid out from 1699 for Louis XIV and designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the architect of Versailles, Place Vendôme is an octagonal square ringed by uniform arcaded façades of pale stone — one of the most harmonious pieces of royal town planning in Paris. A statue of Louis XIV once stood at its centre; it was pulled down during the Revolution.

Napoleon's column

The bronze column at the centre was raised between 1806 and 1810 on Napoleon's orders to celebrate his victory at Austerlitz in 1805. Modelled on Trajan's Column in Rome, its spiralling bas-reliefs were cast from the bronze of cannon captured from the Austrian and Russian armies, and a statue of Napoleon crowns the top. The column was toppled in 1871 during the Paris Commune — the painter Gustave Courbet was held responsible — and re-erected a few years later.

Jewellers, the Ritz and good to know

Since the 19th century the square has been the heart of French high jewellery, ringed by the grand maisons — Cartier, Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chaumet — and by the Ritz Paris, which opened here in 1898. The composer Frédéric Chopin died at no. 12 in 1849. The square itself is open and free to cross at any hour; it is especially striking early in the morning or after dark, when the column is floodlit.