At Bring France Home, we never get tired of admiring the Place des Vosges. Rue de Birague, leads to what used to be the Pavillon du Roi. The Place des Vosges was originally called the Place Royale.
It was renamed after the Revolution in honour of the Vosges department, the first French department that paid its taxes and sent volunteers (from the town of Remiremont) to defend the country.
The Place des Vosges is the oldest square in Paris. Its construction started in 1605 under Henri IV. The unfortunate king died before the work was completed and it was Louis XIII who inaugurated the Place Royale, on the occasion of his engagement in 1612 with Anne of Austria.
Since 1954, it has been classified as a historical monument.
Before the Place Royale, the Hotel des Tournelles
To the north of the current location of Place des Vosges was the Hôtel des Tournelles, a group of buildings built from the 14th century. From a simple building at the beginning, the Hôtel des Tournelles became a real estate that passed through several royal and ecclesiastical hands. It even fell into the hands of the English from 1420 to 1436.
At its height, the Hôtel des Tournelles covered the rue Saint-Antoine, the rue des Tournelles, the rue de Turenne, the rue Saint-Gilles and even as far as the fortified walls of Paris, which were located on the current Boulevard Richard Lenoir.
The main entrance to the estate was at the end of the impasse Guéménée. Up to six thousand people could live there. After the Hundred Years’ War, the Hôtel des Tournelles passed back into the hands of the Kings of France and the estate underwent several changes. Louis XI had a gallery built above the rue Saint-Antoine to link the Hôtel du Roi to the Hôtel du Petit-Musc and fitted out the Hôtel du Roi.
It was under Francis I that the Hôtel d’Angoulême was reunited with the Hôtel du Roi and was renamed Hôtel des Tournelles.
The Hôtel des Tournelles was used to celebrate royal festivities: entry of King Henri II, crowning of Catherine de Medici. Henri II continued to develop the hotel des Tournelles with the implementation of stables. Jousts were organized rue Saint-Antoine which at that time, was the widest street in Paris.
It was during a joust to celebrate the double marriage of Elizabeth of France with Philip II of Spain and of Margaret of France, the King’s sister, with the Duke of Savoy, that King Henri II was accidentally wounded by the Count of Montgommery in front of the Hôtel de Sully on 30 June 1559. The king was transported to the Hôtel des Tournelles where he died on 10 July 1559.
It was only much later that King Henry IV put in place a modern urban planning policy and decided to build two new squares, Place Royale and Place Dauphine. He also wanted to develop a silk factory and imagined a public square with shops and housing in the horse market square of the Hôtel des Tournelles. In 1605 the silk factory was inaugurated but Henri IV could not see it work since the owners of the land wanted a residential square only.
The Place Royale was used as grounds for dueling tournaments and in 1670 the center of the square became a public garden. It is only in the 19th century that shops were authorized to open around the Place des Vosges.
Did you know that?
- The Place des Vosges is the oldest square in Paris.
- The Place des Vosges is the twin sister of the Place Ducale in Charleville-Mézières.
- The Saint-Louis Hospital, built around the same period, has architectural similarities with the Place des Vosges.
- Access to the gardens of the Place Royale was forbidden to poorly dressed people except on August 25, the feast of Saint-Louis.
- In 1738, the first square keeper job was created by the City Office.
