Paris 2024 Olympic Games: discover Place de la Concorde, the theater of urban sports heralding a huge popular festival

La plus grande place de Paris, située entre les Champs-Elysées et le jardin des Tuileries, fut créée en l'honneur du roi Louis XV. MAXPPP – ARNAUD DUMONTIER

The emblematic Place de la Concorde hosts urban sports: BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and basketball 3×3.

La Concorde, an emblematic square with its famous obelisk dating from the 13th century BC, gets a facelift during the Paris Olympic Games with urban sports events: BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and basketball 3×3.

Ancienne "Place de la Révolution"

The largest square in Paris, located between the Champs-Elysées and the Tuileries Gardens, was created in honor of King Louis XV and renamed 'Place de la Révolution'. three years after the popular uprising of 1789.

It became one of the main places of public executions: more than 1,000 people were guillotined there, including Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1793, Robespierre and Danton the following year. After the dark period of the Terror, the name Concorde was chosen to mark reconciliation. It will be definitively adopted after the Revolution of 1830.

The Obelisk of Luxor

The obelisk which sits in the center of the Place de la Concorde is a gift from Egypt, in gratitude for the decipherment of hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1822. Offered to France with its twin – which will ultimately remain at the Luxor temple – the obelisk engraved with hieroglyphics was erected on Place de la Concorde on October 25, 1836, in front of 200,000 people.

It was only in 1998 that a "pyramidion" in gilded bronze was installed at the top of the pink granite monolith 23 meters high (30 meters with its pedestal). It finally regained its original aesthetic in 2023 with the addition of a steel tip covered in gold leaf.

Hotel de Crillon and sporting celebrations

Built in the 18th century, under Louis XV, the Hôtel de Crillon, a former private mansion with a neoclassical facade which borders the Place de la Concorde, was transformed into a luxury hotel in 1909. Crowned heads, foreign dignitaries and many personalities have stayed there.

The pact of the League of Nations, ancestor of the UN, was signed there in 1919. Le Crillon hosted for around twenty years, until 2012, the "Debutante Ball", an international social gathering for the benefit of a charity. Several sporting events were celebrated there.

The French football team held up the World Cup for the public in 1998, as well as its European trophy two years later, from a balcony of the palace. She returned to greet the crowd after her defeats in the final against Italy in 2006 and Argentina in 2022.