Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the corners give the rectangular Place Vendôme the aspect of an octagon. (Redirected from 1er arrondissement, Paris) The 1er arrondissement is one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, France. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Up to 1871 the Tuileries Palace was a palace in Paris, France, on the right bank of the River Seine. ... Jules Hardouin-Mansart, marble bust by Jean-Louis Lemoyne: a full-dress Baroque portrait bust demonstrates that the Kings architect is no mere craftsman Jules Hardouin-Mansart (Paris, April 16, 1646 – Marly, France, May 11, 1708) was a French architect whose work is generally considered to be the apex...

After some false starts, the Place was laid out in 1702 as a monument to the glory of the armies of Louis XIV, the Grand Monarque and called Place des Conquetes, to be renamed Place Louis le Grand, when the conquests proved temporary; an equestrian statue of the king was set up in its center. Louis XIV King of France and Navarre By Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638–September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ...

Napoleon erected the present column, modelled after Trajan's Column, to celebrate the victory of Austerlitz; its spiralling veneers of bas-relief bronze plates (by the sculptor Pierre-Nolasque Bergeret) were made out of cannon taken from the combined armies of Europe, according to his propaganda. (The usual figure given is hugely exaggerated: 133 cannon were actually captured at Austerlitz.) After the Bourbon restoration the statue of the Emperor was pulled from the top of the column and refinished as a statue of Henri IV, which can be inspected on the Pont Neuf. A replacement statue of Napoleon, however, was erected by Louis-Philippe, and a better, more augustly classicizing one by Louis-Napoleon. The column was pulled down by a gang of Communards in 1871, with the painter Gustave Courbet at their head, but was set up again in the early days of the Third Republic, and there it remains. At the Battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805), during the Napoleonic War of the Third Coalition, a French force of approximately 73,000 under Napoleon decisively defeated a joint Russo_Austrian force of over 89,000, commanded by Russian General Kutuzov with General von Weyrother commanding the Austrian contingent. ... Following the ouster of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, the Allies restored the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne. ... By Frans Pourbus the younger. ... Pont Neuf The Pont Neuf, is the oldest standing bridge in Paris, France, across the river Seine. ... Destruction of the Vendôme Column during the Paris Commune The term Paris Commune originally referred to the government of Paris during the French Revolution. ... Gustave Courbet (portrait by Nadar) Gustave Courbet (June 10, 1819 - December 31, 1877) was a French painter. ...

Communards pose with the statue from the toppled Vendôme column, 1871

The site of the square was formerly the hôtel of César, duc de Vendôme, the illegitimate son of Henri IV and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées. Mansart bought the building and its gardens, with an idea of converting it into building lots as a profitable speculation. The plan didn't materialize, and Louis XIV's minister of finance, Louvois, purchased the piece of ground, with the object of building a square, modelled on the successful Place des Vosges of the previous century. Louvois came into financial difficulties and nothing came of his project, either. After his death the king purchased the plot and commissioned Mansart to design a housefront that the buyers of plots round the Place would agree to adhere to. When the state finances ran low, the financier John Law took on the project, built himself a residence behind one of the facades, and the square was complete by 1720, just as his paper-money Mississippi bubble burst. Description Destruction of the Vendôme Colonne during the Paris Commune Source http://www. ... Description Destruction of the Vendôme Colonne during the Paris Commune Source http://www. ... By Frans Pourbus the younger. ... Gabrielle dEstrée, Duchess of Beaufort and Verneuil, and Marquise de Monceaux ( 1571- 1599) was a French mistress of King Henry IV of France, born at Château de la Bourdaisière in Montlouis-sur-Loire, in the Indre-et-Loire department of France. ... Fountain in the Place des Vosges The Place des Vosges is Paris oldest (and some say most beautiful) square. ... There have been a number of famous individuals named John Law: John Law (economist) John Law (sociologist) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... In August 1717 Scottish businessman John Law acquired a controlling interest in the then derelict Mississippi Company and renamed it the Compagnie d’Occident (or Compagnie du Mississippi). ...

At the centers of the square's long sides, Mansart's range of Corinthian pilasters breaks forward under a pediment, to create palace-like fronts. The arcading of the formally rusticated ground floors does not provide an arcaded passageway as at Place des Vosges. The architectural linking of the windows from one floor to the next, and the increasing arch of their windowheads, provide an upward spring to the horizontals formed by ranks of windows. Originally the Place was accessible by a single street and preserved an aristocratic quiet, except when the annual fair was held there. Then Napoleon opened the Rue de la Paix, and the 20th century filled the Place Vendôme with traffic. The Corinthian order as used for the portico of the Pantheon, Rome provided a prominent model for Renaissance and later architects, through the medium of engravings. ...

The Place Vendome has been famous for its fashionable and deluxe hotels: The Hôtel Ritz Paris, which is the Ritz, and the Bristol, which Edward VII preferred, now called the Vendôme. Many famous dress designers have had their salons in the square. Hotel Ritz, Paris The Hôtel Ritz at 15 Place Vendôme in Paris, France is considered one of the worlds best hotels. ... Edward VII King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India His Majesty King Edward VII (Albert Edward) (9 November 1841–6 May 1910) was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. ...

External links

• Place Vendôme and its history (http://www.oldandsold.com/articles03/paris2.shtml)
• Lucy Komisar, "The Intriguing Past and Present of the Place Vendôme in Paris" (http://www.travellady.com/Issues/December03/TheIngriguingPastandPresent.htm)

Place Vendôme provided a title for a 1998 movie starring Catherine Deneuve. 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of... Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve (born October 22, 1943) is a French actress, born in Paris, France. ...