Monument sights in Paris
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Conciergerie
Built as a royal palace in the 14th century for the concierge of the Palais de la Cité, the Conciergerie was the main prison during the Reign of Terror (1793–94) and was used to incarcerate alleged enemies of the Revolution before they were brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal in the Palais de Justice next door. Among the 2700 prisoners held in the cachots (dungeons) here before being sent in tumbrels to the guillotine were Queen Marie-Antoinette and, as the Revolution began to turn on its own, the radicals Danton, Robespierre and, finally, the judges of the Tribunal themselves.
The Gothic 14th-century Salle des Gens d’Armes (Cavalrymen’s Hall) is a fine example o…
reviewed
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Flame of Liberty Memorial
This bronze sculpture – a replica of the one topping New York’s Statue of Liberty – was placed here in 1987 on the centenary of the launch of the International Herald Tribune newspaper, as a symbol of friendship between France and the USA. On 31 August 1997 in the place d’Alma underpass below, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a devastating car accident along with her companion, Dodi Fayed, and their chauffeur, Henri Paul, and the Flame of Liberty became something of a memorial to her, decorated with flowers, photographs, graffiti and personal notes. It was renovated and cleaned in 2002 and, this being the age of short (or no) memories, apart from a bit of sen…
reviewed
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Panthéon
The domed landmark now known simply as the Panthéon was commissioned around 1750 as an abbey church dedicated to Ste Geneviève, but because of financial and structural problems it wasn’t completed until 1789 – not a good year for churches to open in France. Two years later, the Constituent Assembly converted it into a secular mausoleum for the grands hommes de l’époque de la liberté française (great men of the era of French liberty).
The Panthéon is a superb example of 18th-century neoclassicism, but its ornate marble interior is gloomy in the extreme. The 80-odd permanent residents of the crypt include Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, …
reviewed
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Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
Erected by Napoleon to celebrate his battlefield successes of 1805, this triumphal arch, which is set in the Jardin du Carrousel at the eastern end of the Jardin des Tuileries, was once crowned by the ancient Greek sculpture called The Horses of St Mark’s, ‘borrowed’ from the portico of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice by Napoleon but returned after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The quadriga (the two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses) that replaced it was added in 1828 and celebrates the return of the Bourbons to the French throne after Napoleon’s downfall. The sides of the arch are adorned with depictions of Napoleonic victories and eight pink-marble columns, atop eac…
reviewed
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Sorbonne
Paris’ most renowned seat of learning, the Sorbonne was founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon, confessor to Louis IX, as a college for 16 impoverished theology students. Today, the Sorbonne’s main complex (bounded by rue de la Sorbonne, rue des Écoles, rue St-Jacques and rue Cujas) and other buildings in the vicinity house most of the 13 autonomous universities that were created when the University of Paris was reorganised after violent student protests in 1968. Parts of the complex are undergoing extensive renovation, scheduled to be completed in 2015.
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