Place de la Libération

You are standing in front of a vast sweeping hemicircle of pale stone paving that opens up to a grand classical palace crowned by a tall rectangular tower. Here we are at the Place de la Libération, the historical heart of Dijon.

Back in sixteen eighty-six, the famous architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart designed this elegant semi-circle as a grand showcase for King Louis the Fourteenth. If you check your phone, you can see Mansart's original architectural drawing from sixteen eighty-eight.

The centerpiece was supposed to be a massive bronze equestrian statue of the king. Sculptor Étienne Le Hongre finished it just before he died in sixteen ninety. There was just one small problem. The bronze weighed twenty-six tons, and seventeenth-century roads were notoriously terrible. The journey to Dijon began in sixteen ninety-two, but the statue was so heavy it ruined the roads and the transport had to be abandoned. The king's statue literally sat in the town of Auxerre for twenty-seven years. It finally completed its journey in September seventeen twenty, dragged by twenty pairs of oxen. The shipping alone cost thirty thousand livres, roughly equivalent to over a million dollars today.

So, the king finally got his grand square. But history had other plans. During the French Revolution, the royal square was renamed Place d'Armes, and the hard-won statue was torn down. That magnificent twenty-six-ton bronze was shipped off to the foundries at Le Creusot, where it was melted down to make cannons.

The square went through several more identity crises before becoming Place de la Libération in nineteen forty-four. Fast forward to two thousand and five, and architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte transformed the area into the pedestrian space you see today. Take a glance at your app for a view highlighting the sleek Comblanchien limestone paving and the three ground-level fountains he added.

It is a perfect blend of royal heritage and relaxed modern living. Let the scale of this grand plaza wash over you. When you are ready, we can head to our next stop.