Place de la Révolution

First named the Place Louis XV in 1748, this square was renamed the Place de la Révolution for obvious reasons. The guillotine operated here from mid-May 1793 right through the Terror. In the more conservative political climate of 1795 it was renamed again as the Place de la Concorde. After a couple more revisions in the early nineteenth century this latter name has remained through to the present day. See also the map of Paris in ‘Resources’.

Appears in these Letters:

1793

21 January: The Execution of Louis XVI

The deposed king's trial before the nation's elected representatives in the National Convention began on 11 December 1792. A guilty verdict was never...

22 October: The Execution of Marie-Antoinette

The execution of the former queen Marie-Antoinette on 16 October 1793, after a highly politicised show trial at the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal, was...