Place Dauphine description and photos - France: Paris (Topic)

Place Dauphine description and photos - France: Paris. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Place Dauphine.

Photo and description

The Dauphine square is one of the most beautiful in Paris. It is located on the Ile de la Cite, a beautiful view of the Louvre opens from here - and, nevertheless, as Andre Maurois wrote, the square is undeservedly forgotten. Tourists know little of her.

Place Dauphin appeared in 1608, under Henry IV. Four years earlier, the king had built a New Bridge that crossed the Cite. At the intersection - on the western tip of the island - the king who appreciated the beauty decided to break up a spacious square, which would contrast with the tangled medieval streets of old Paris.

The square was named after the future monarch Louis XIII - the heir to the throne in France was called the Dauphin ... Along the perimeter, thirty-two houses were built in the same style - brick, white stone, arcades, white slate roofs. Nearby on the Cite was the former royal palace, where the administration of the king and the courts of justice were located - middle-rank diplomats and provincials participating in the courts began to rent apartments on the square. The Dauphin dance itself became a favorite place of work for comedians and furious men.

The "Jolly King", as Henry was called, did not have time to really enjoy his creation: on May 14, 1610, when he was traveling in an open carriage through Paris, the tramp Francois Ravallac, jumping on the bandwagon, struck the king three times with a dagger.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the square became the focus of the artistic life of Paris. On the day of the Body and Blood of Christ, exhibitions of debutant artists were held here in the open air. It was here that Fragonard and Chardin received recognition.

The French Revolution banned the very holiday of the Body and Blood of Christ, exhibitions have ceased. At the same time, the revolutionaries sent the equestrian monument to the "tyrant" Henry IV that adorned the square to be melted down. The monument was restored in 1818, this time it was cast from the re-melted figure of Napoleon Bonaparte from the Vendome Column.

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Topic: Place Dauphine description and photos - France: Paris.