Stories
Place Vendome
Place Vendôme
The luxurious Hôtel Ritz and its 5-star, equally swanky sister, Hotel Vendôme, are located on the square, and let’s not forget famous jewelers and well-known dress designers. A number of famous people have also lived along Place Vendôme, including Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, his friend and author George Sand, Americans Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and designer Coco Chanel, who all resided at the Hôtel Ritz.
Place Vendôme came about when France’s Sun King, Louis XIV engaged Versailles architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart to design a square to rival the Marais’ Place des Vosges, which paid homage to the king's predecessor, Louis XIII. Place Vendôme was laid out in 1702 by Hardouin-Mansart, who originally purchased the property in hopes of making some money in real estate. However, when the venture was unsuccessful, the land was given to the King's minister of Finance, who later used it to satisfy a debt, then ceded it to his King and proposed a public square.
In keeping with the beloved Marais design, Mansard made all the buildings on what later became Place Vendôme identical with arched ground floors and tall-windowed second floors with pilasters and ornamental pillars placed between each set of windows.
At the center of the square stands Colonne Vendôme, erected by Napoleon I to commemorate one of his greatest victories at Austerlitz in 1805. This 44-meter-tall column (144 ft) is modeled after Rome's Trajan Column. Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret sculpted the column’s continuous veneer of bas-relief bronze plates from 1200 cannons taken from the Russian and Austrian armies during that battle. The reliefs show scenes from the Napoleonic Wars.
Place Vendôme, Paris 1st
Métro: #1 Tuileries, #1 Concorde, #8 Opéra, #8 Pyramides, #12 Madeleine
Bus: 42, 72
Velib: #09034 Godot De Mauroy, 2 rue Godot de Mauroy; #01022 Rue De La Paix, 37 rue Casanova; #01020 Rivoli Concorde, 2 rue Cambon
