Place Charles-de-Gaulle

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Place Charles-de-Gaulle
location
Arrondissement 8th , 16th , 17th
quarter Champs-Élysées
Chaillot
Ternes
Junctions Avenue des Champs-Elysées
Avenue de Friedland
Avenue Hoche
Avenue de Wagram
Avenue Mac-Mahon
Avenue Carnot
Avenue de la Grande-Armée
Avenue Foch
Avenue Victor-Hugo
Avenue Kléber
Avenue d'Iéna
Avenue Marceau
morphology
length 240 m
width 240 m
history
Emergence 1670
designation November 13, 1970
Original names Place de l'Étoile
Coding
Paris 1830

The Place Charles de Gaulle (formerly Place de l'Étoile ) is one of the biggest squares of Paris . The 8th , 16th and 17th arrondissements of Paris come together on the circular square with a diameter of around 240 m . The center of the square is the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile .

Name origin

Its probably better known former name (and which is still mostly called today) Place de l'Étoile (German Sternplatz) was the place from 1863 to 1970. It owes its name to the fact that it was built in the second half of the 18th century on a former Parisian hill called Butte de l'Étoile or Étoile de Chaillot of the hill Colline du Roule , where different streets crossed. But even in the 19th and 20th centuries, the square rightly bore its old name, as twelve large Parisian streets converge on it in a star shape.

On November 13, 1970, the square was renamed Place Charles de Gaulle . This happened a few days after the death of the general and former French president .

location

12 large streets ( French Avenues ) lead to this square in a star shape. These are from the north and counterclockwise (corresponds to the traffic routing):

  1. Avenue de Wagram : Since the Second Empire and before that, “Boulevard de l'Étoile” or “Boulevard Bezons”
  2. Avenue Mac-Mahon : "Avenue du Prince-Jérôme " in the Second Empire
  3. Avenue Carnot : "Avenue d'Essling " in the Second Empire
  4. Avenue de la Grande Armée : Since the Second Empire and before that, "Avenue de Neuilly "
  5. Avenue Foch : During the Third French Republic "Avenue du Bois (de Boulogne) " and during the Second Empire "Avenue de l ' Impératrice "
  6. Avenue Victor-Hugo : In the Second Empire "Avenue d' Eylau " and before that "Avenue de Saint-Cloud "
  7. Avenue Kléber : In the Second Empire, “Avenue du Roi-de-Rome ” and before that “Boulevard de Passy
  8. Avenue d'Iéna
  9. Avenue Marceau : "Avenue Joséphine " in the Second Empire
  10. Avenue des Champs-Élysées
  11. Avenue de Friedland : From the Second Empire and before that, «Boulevard Beaujon»
  12. Avenue Hoche : In the Second Empire, “Avenue de la Reine-Hortense ” and before that “Boulevard Monceau”
Place Charles-de-Gaulle, Paris

These twelve avenues result in six traffic axes:

  1. Axis avenue Mac-Mahon and avenue d' Iéna
  2. Axis avenue de Wagram and avenue Kléber
  3. Axis Avenue Hoche and Avenue Victor-Hugo
  4. Axis Avenue de Friedland and Avenue Foch
  5. Axis Avenue des Champs-Élysées and Avenue de la Grande-Armée: This axis is considered to be the Ax historique in Paris
  6. Axis avenue Marceau and avenue Carnot

The Place de l'Étoile (like the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile ) is divided into three arrondissements like a cake:

  1. 8th arrondissement: between avenue de Wagram and avenue Marceau
  2. 16th arrondissement: between avenue Marceau and avenue de la Grande-Armée
  3. 17th arrondissement: between avenue de la Grande-Armée and avenue de Wagram

Two streets form a circle around the square: Rue de Presbourg and Rue de Tilsitt . They were so named in 1864 and refer to two diplomatic successes of Napoleon .

Rue Lauriston forms another ring road between Avenues Kléber and Victor-Hugo; However, it ends at the Rue de Presbourg and thus hardly affects the harmony of the square.

The pavement on the street also depicts a star:

  1. Darker colored paving stones form triangles, the base of which is adjacent to the central median strip and the tips of which point towards the Hôtels der Maréchaux .
  2. Likewise, reddish-colored cobblestones form triangles that seem to overlap the previous ones and the point of which is directed towards the avenues converging towards the square.

In 1970 the Tunnel de l'Étoile was opened to connect the Avenue des Champs-Élysées with the Avenue de la Grande-Armée. The road tunnel was closed in 2015 and is slated to reopen for cyclists in 2020. The pedestrian underpass Passage du Souvenir , located immediately next to it, connects the Arc de Triomphe with the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Avenue de la Grande-Armée.

You can get to Place Charles de Gaulle using the following means of transport:

History of the place

  • 1670: On the Butte de l'Étoile of the Colline du Roule hill , a first octagonal square is laid out well into the 18th century.
  • 1768 to 1774: The engineer and architect Jean-Rodolphe Perronet (1708–1794), premier ingénieur des Ponts-et-Chaussées , had the top of the Colline du Roule removed at the suggestion of Ange-Jacques Gabriel , inspecteur des bâtiments du roi to give the old street from Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde ) to the Pont de Neuilly an even slope. In the course of this leveling work, the Butte de l'Étoile was lowered by five meters. A generously designed, round square was created on the large, leveled area at the top of the former hill. The avenue des Champs-Élysées and the routes of the later rue Balzac and rue Washington were filled with the excavation .
  • 1785 to 1787: In 1785, the sixth historical Paris city wall, the wall of the general tenants ( mur des Fermiers généraux ) is built. For the first time it was not used to defend the city, but to collect import duties. In 1787 the wall is extended to the eastern part of the converted square with two gates designed by the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and embedded in the wall of the general tenants.
  • 1806: On August 15, 1806, by order of Emperor Napoleon, the foundation stone for the construction of the triumphal arch is laid.
  • 1836: On July 29, 1836, the triumphal arch is inaugurated by the French King Louis Philippe .
  • 1854: On August 13, 1854, the order was given to radically rebuild the square. Up to this point he had only five streets: the street from Paris to Neuilly-sur-Seine (today the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Avenue de la Grande Armée ), two battlements outside the wall of the general tenants (chemins de ronde) (now the Avenue Kléber and the Avenue de Wagram ) and recently by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff finished Avenue de l'Impératrice (now the Avenue Foch ).
  • 1857: According to the decree of 1854, seven more routes are laid out by 1857, which should give the square the current appearance of a round square with twelve streets radiating from it: Now the avenue de Friedland , the avenue de la Reine-Hortense (the today's Avenue Hoche), the avenue du Roi-Jérôme (today's avenue Mac-Mahon), the avenue d'Essling (today's avenue Carnot ), the avenue d'Eylau (today's avenue Victor-Hugo ), the avenue d ' Iéna and avenue Joséphine (today's avenue Marceau ).
  • 1858: The architect Jakob Ignaz Hittorff erected twelve symmetrically designed 21-meter-high city palaces (hôtels) with identical facades at the intersection of the twelve arterial roads with the narrow street that encircles the entire square (today Rue de Presbourg and Rue de Tilsitt ) . Since, in the opinion of the Parisian city planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann Hittorfs, houses that were too small did not harmonize with the huge square, Haussmann had trees planted in front of them that, in his opinion, should cover the houses that were not very representative at this point.
  • 1921: On January 28, 1921, the remains of an unknown soldier who died in the Battle of Verdun are buried under the triumphal arch .
  • 1923: Since November 11, 1923, an eternal flame has burned over the tomb of the unknown soldier .
  • 1970: On November 13, which is the Place de l'Etoile in honor of the four days earlier died former French President Charles de Gaulle in Place Charles de Gaulle renamed.

Special events

Plaque commemorating the first student demonstration on November 11, 1940 against the occupation at
156, Avenue des Champs-Élysées
Commemorative plaque to Yolande Arlette Claude, who died in 1944 at the Liberation de Paris

The Place de l'Étoile was the setting for many festivals and major events:

  • The Assemblée nationale had blocked entry on May 1, 1792 in order to offer the Parisians a major festival, which took place mainly at the Barrière de l'Étoile .
  • On June 25, 1792, the royal family returned to Paris from their escape to Varennes through the Barrière de l'Étoile , after circumventing the city via the outer boulevards. The berline, surrounded by two rows of the Garde nationale and a silent crowd, drove down the avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Palais des Tuileries .
  • On July 14, 1801, the anniversary of the storm on the Bastille was celebrated.
  • On April 2, 1810, the day after the civil wedding of Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie-Louise in Castle Saint-Cloud , the imperial procession moved to the under the triumphal arch that was under construction (the shell was covered by a canvas and magnificently decorated) Tuileries, where the church wedding should be celebrated.
  • In 1824 a festival was celebrated on the return of the Duke of Angoulême after the conquest of Trocadero .
  • On August 3, 1830, 10 or 20,000 men gathered there to move under the leadership of General Pajol to Rambouillet , where Charles X had taken refuge after the July events , and to force the deposed king to leave.
  • The triumphal arch, construction of which began in 1806, was inaugurated on July 29, 1836.
  • On December 15, 1840, Napoleon's ashes were solemnly welcomed.
  • On April 20, 1848, a festival of fraternization ( French fête de la Fraternité ) took place, at which the members of the provisional government and the representatives of the people handed over the flags to the army and the national guard and took the oath of office on the new republic .
  • On December 2, 1852, on the day the Second Empire was proclaimed , Napoleon III rode . Coming on horseback from the Château de Saint-Cloud through the triumphal arch to the Palais des Tuileries.

Name change

Street sign: Place Charles-de-Gaulle

By decree of November 13, 1970, the Place de l'Étoile was officially renamed Place Charles de Gaulle . Charles de Gaulle died on November 9th in his retirement home, Colombey les Deux Églises .

Initially, it was the Avenue des Champs-Élysées to be renamed, but in the end the square (there are no houses and shops here) was chosen. The controversial discussion about the appointment did not end there: the general had announced his resignation when the results of the referendum of April 27, 1969 were announced. The polemics increased and on December 31, 1970 led to the establishment of a Comité national de défense de la place de l'Étoile - Sanctuaire du Soldat Inconnu et du Prestige de Paris dans le monde , which, suggested by Paul Antier , is the preservation of the property of the original name «Place de l'Étoile».

Since the name change, the members of the Conseil de Paris have set new rules: you cannot name a public street after people who have died less than 5 years (the 2006 naming of Place Jean-Paul-II shows that there are exceptions) and you tries not to violate the habits of Parisians anymore. The Rond-point des Champs-Élysées was renamed only with the addition of Marcel Dassault (Rond-point des Champs-Élysées-Marcel-Dassault) .

In contrast, the RATP has renamed the station Étoile in Charles de Gaulle - Étoile . The aim was to avoid tourists in a hurry from accidentally arriving in the middle of Paris instead of going to the Aéroport Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle .

The last bridge built in Paris (1994–1996) was named Pont Charles-de-Gaulle by resolution of November 29, 1990 . However, it is at the other end of the city and connects the 12th and 13th arrondissements .

The 9th edition of the Mayor's Office of Paris (1997) of the Nomenclature officielle des noms de voies publiques et privées writes both the “Place Charles de Gaulle” and the “Pont Charles de Gaulle” without a hyphen .

In literature and film

La Place de l'Étoile is the title of a novel by Patrick Modiano that was published in 1968, before the name was changed.

The final scene in the film Les Rois mages (2001) takes place on the square.

literature

Web links

Commons : Place Charles-de-Gaulle (Paris)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Des Racines et des Ailes: Paris, de place en place - Émission intégrale. January 31, 2018, accessed November 22, 2018 .
  2. ^ German  national committee for the defense of the Place de l'Étoile - Sanctuary of the Unknown Soldier and of prestige in the world

Coordinates: 48 ° 52 ′ 25.6 "  N , 2 ° 17 ′ 41"  E