Concorde: station history
Served by: metro lines 1, 8 and 12.
Did you know?
Served by lines 1, 8 and 12, on the border of the 1st and 8th arrondissements, the station lies under the northern part of place de la Concorde, whose name was chosen by the Directory to mark the reconciliation of the French after the Terror. Line 1 runs under rue de Rivoli, line 8 along rue Royale, line 12 along the Tuileries garden. Line 1 opened it a little under a month after its first section, and the line 8 platforms eight months after its own.
Anecdote
Each line has its own colour: Tyrian pink for line 1, the only Andreu-Motte station treated this way, between 1976 and 1979; purple for line 8, one of three stations in this style in purple. On the line 12 platforms, an artwork by Françoise Schein, installed in 1991, reproduces the « Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 » in blue letters on a white background. A third dead-end track, towards Créteil, existed on line 8 until 1997.
Audio guide
The Obelisk, the oldest monument in Paris
At the heart of the Place de la Concorde is the oldest monument in Paris: a 3,300-year-old obelisk, carved during the reign of Ramses II! This granite monolith, brought back to Paris after a perilous journey, is 23 m high and weighs nearly 220 tons.
It dates from the 13th century BC. On its four faces, the hieroglyphics are scenes of offerings to the glory of Ramses II. With a second obelisk, he adorned the entrance to the Temple of Luxor, in Thebes. The Viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, offered it to Charles X and France in 1829, and confirmed this gift in November 1830.
It was erected on Place de la Concorde on 25 October 1836, in front of 200,000 people, by the engineer Apollinaire Lebas. The monolith weighs 222 tons, plus 240 tons for the pedestal.
Its summit, the 3.60 m pyramidion, is covered with bronze. It was installed in May 1998 to replace an ornament taken away during invasions in the 6th century. More recently, the obelisk has been restored, prepared for more than a year with the patron Kärcher: the scaffolding is laid in mid-November 2021 and the main work takes place from January to June 2022.
Musee de l 'Orangerie, the temple of the Water Lilies
Built in 1852 on the edge of the Tuileries garden, the Orangerie sheltered the garden's orange trees in winter. She owes her fate to Claude Monet.
On November 12, 1918, the day after the Armistice, Monet proposed to his friend Clemenceau to offer the State two panels of Water Lilies, a symbol of peace. He painted eight of them, nearly 90 meters long, retouched until his death in December 1926, his eyesight blurred by cataracts. He did not see the inauguration in 1927.
The two oval rooms are illuminated by natural light: blues, greens and roses change over the hours.
At the bottom, the Walter-Guillaume collection brings together Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Modigliani, Soutine and the Douanier Rousseau.
Around Concorde
- Jardin des Tuileries, 500 m away — A garden begun in 1564 for Catherine de' Medici and redesigned in 1664 by Le Nôtre around a central path and two basins. Listed as a historic monument in 1914, it broadly keeps that layout.
- Obélisque de Louxor, 10 m away — A 3,300-year-old Egyptian obelisk, gifted to France by Egypt in 1830, carved with hieroglyphs recounting the reign of Ramesses II.
- Maxim's, 200 m away — Opened in 1893 by Maxime Gaillard at 3 rue Royale, on a former ice-cream parlour, it received its Art Nouveau decor in 1899, listed as a historic monument in 1981. In 1905 Franz Lehár set the third act of The Merry Widow here.
- Église de la Madeleine, 550 m away — A neoclassical church shaped like a Greek temple, completed in 1842, known for its monumental architecture and concerts.