The world famous square is located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. Designed in 1702 as a monument to the glory of the armies of Louis XIV, and it was decided that its shape would be an octagon. Originally named the Place Louis le Grand, it had at the time an equestrian statue of the king set up in its center. By the time the revolution was over and Louis XIV was several generations in the grave the Place Vendôme belonged to Napoleon I, who erected the column that currently sits in the center of the Place Vendôme. The column in the square’s center, modelled after Trajan's Column, was made to celebrate the victory of Austerlitz. Its spiralling veneers of bas-relief bronze plates are supposedly made from out of cannon taken from the combined armies of Europe.













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At some point the statue of Napoleon I was removed, to be replaced by a statue of Henri IV. The square passed from owner to owner, being for a while the site of a hotel. Each owner suffered financial difficulties, and with each new owner came a new “grand design” for the square. Originally the Place was accessible by a single street and preserved an aristocratic quiet, except when the annual fair was held there. Napoleon opened the Rue de la Paix and the 20th century filled the Place Vendôme with traffic.













































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