Description of the attraction
Place Dauphin is one of the most beautiful in Paris. It is located on the Ile de la Cité, from here a beautiful view of the Louvre opens up - and, nevertheless, as Andre Maurois wrote, the square is undeservedly forgotten. Tourists know little of her.
Place Dauphin originated in 1608, under Henry IV. Four years earlier, the king had built a New Bridge that crossed the Cité. At the intersection - on the western tip of the island - the king, who appreciated the beauty, decided to break up a spacious square that would contrast with the tangled medieval streets of old Paris.
The square was named in honor of 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 Cité 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 has become a favorite place of work for comedians and zuboders.
The "Jolly King", as Henry was called, did not have time to really enjoy his creation: on May 14, 1610, when he was riding 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 gained recognition.
The French Revolution banned the very holiday of the Body and Blood of Christ, the exhibitions were stopped. At the same time, the revolutionaries sent the equestrian monument to the "tyrant" Henry IV, which 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.
The current Dauphin is not very similar to its ancestor four centuries ago. The buildings on the east side were demolished to reveal a view of the Palace of Justice; only two of the former houses have survived to this day. Today it is a cozy and quiet square that Parisians love very much.
