Place de la République

3rd, 10th, 11th Arrt
Place de la République
Arrondissement 3, 10, 11
Quarter Arts-et-Métiers
Enfants-Rouges
Porte-Saint-Martin
Folie-Méricourt
Begins Boulevard du Temple
Ends Boulevard Saint-Martin
Length 283 m
Width 119 m
Creation
Denomination 7 May 1879
Monument at the centre of the Place de la République

The Place de la République is a square in Paris, located on the border between the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements. It is named after the French Republic. The Métro station of République lies beneath the square.

Contents

History

The location of the Place corresponds to the bastion of the gate of the Temple in the wall of Charles V (raised between 1356 and 1383). Decorated in 1811 with a fountain called the Château-d'Eau, designed by Pierre-Simon Girard, it took its current shape under the Second French Empire as part of Baron Hausmann's city renovation scheme. Most of the theatres of boulevard du Temple were demolished for this project.

The "caserne" du Prince Eugène, a military barracks later named the caserne du Château d'Eau, then the caserne Vérines, was erected by Degrove on this site, in 1854, to replace the former summer exhibition of Wauxhall and the famous diorama where Daguerre, one of the inventors of the photograph, had given his fifteen-minute demonstrations. Built with the foresight to house 3200 men, it has, since 1947, housed the French Republican Guard.

Gabriel Davioud, Paris's official city architect, added to the square, building the Magasins réunis along its whole north side in 1866. He also built a second fountain, one decorated with bronze lions. (Girard's fountain was judged insufficient for the site, but it was salvaged and re-erected in 1867 in the market of La Villette).

In 1879, a competition, to design a great monument devoted to the newly-proclaimed Third Republic, was won by the Morice brothers, Léopold Morice for the statuary and relief-panels of historic scenes, and his architect brother Charles Morice for the base. Two inauguration ceremonies took place, the first on 14 July 1880 with a gypsum model, and the second on 14 July 1883 with the final version in bronze[1].

Metro stations

The Place de la République is:

Located near the metro stationRépublique.

It is served by lines 3, 5, 8, 9, and 11.

Streets meeting at the Place de la République

References

  1. ^ Quand Paris dansait avec Marianne, 1879-1889, exhibition catalog, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, 1989.

Source

This page is a translation of its French equivalent.