[1] A metro station is located at the northeastern corner of Place de la Concorde on Lines 1, 8, and 12 of the Paris Métro.

The site chosen for the statue was the large esplanade, or space between the revolving gate, the Tuileries Garden and the Cour-la-Reine, a popular lane for horseback riding at the edge of the city.

The statue, by Edmé Bouchardon, depicted the King on horseback as the victor of the Battle of Fontenoy, dressed as a Roman general, with a laurel wreath on his head.

On the four corners of the pedestal, designed by Jean Chalgrin, are bronze statues by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, depicting the virtues of great monarchs; Force, Justice, Prudence, and Peace.

They were originally intended to be occupied by embassies, but in the end the east building became a depot for the Royal furnishings, then the headquarters of the French Navy, the Hôtel de la Marine.

The two people who were executed were thieves who had stolen the royal crown diamonds from the Hotel de la Marine.

As the Reign of Terror commenced, the guillotine was set up again on 11 May 1793, midway between the Statue of Liberty and the turning bridge at the entrance to the Tuileries Garden, and remained there for thirteen months.

Besides Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, others executed on the same site included Charlotte Corday and Madame du Barry.

During the later days of the Reign of Terror in 1794, Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Antoine Lavoisier, Maximilien Robespierre, and Louis de Saint-Just were executed there.

In 1790, early in the French Revolution, the Concorde bridge was constructed, and, at the suggestion of Jacques-Louis David, the statues of the "Marly Horses by Guillaume Coustou the Elder, were placed on the north side, at the entrance of the Champs-Élysées.

In October 1835 Hittorff installed the new centrepiece of the square, the Luxor Obelisk, a gift to the King from the wali Muhammad Ali of Egypt.

[9] The square was the entry point of two major international expositions: the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, which left behind the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, and the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, which gave its name to the Art Deco architectural style of the 20th century.

[10] It also hosted triumphant celebrations of sporting events such as the French national team's victory in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

[14][15] The centrepiece of the Place de la Concorde is an ancient Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II.

The wali of Egypt, or hereditary governor, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk as a diplomatic gift to France in 1829.

Three years later, it was hoisted into place, on top of the pedestal which originally supported the statue of Louis XV, destroyed during the Revolution.

[17] The obelisk, a yellow granite column, rises 23 metres (75 ft) high, including the base, and weighs over 250 tonnes (280 short tons).

The government of France added a gold-leafed pyramidal cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998, replacing the missing original, believed stolen in the 6th century BC.

[19] Hittorff's fountains were each nine meters high, matching the height of the earlier columns and statues around the square representing great French cities.

[22] The north side of the square, along the Rue de Rivoli, is occupied by two palatial buildings, whose matching façades were designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel.

[29] The early west gateway of Paris, the Port de la Conference, was located at the south end of the square, next to the Seine.

[30] Closer to the Seine is the Orangerie Museum, which was built in 1852 by architect Firmin Bourgeois as a winter shelter for the Tuileries citrus trees, also under Napoleon III.

It was later converted into an art exhibition hall, and since 1927 it has been the home of one of the most famous groups of works of Impressionism, the eight paintings of the "Water Lilies" series by Claude Monet.

These include, since 1998, four works by Auguste Rodin: The Kiss (1881–1888); a bronze copy of the marble original, cast in 1934; "Eve" (1881); The Grand Shadow (1881); and Meditation, with arms (1881–1905).