General view

In 1685 Louis XIV bought the site of the Hotel Vend�me from the bankrupt owner, the Duc of Vend�me, with the intention of making an arcaded square with building to house the royal library and the various academies. The first project was dropped, and the finally completed Place Vend�me is a square with the corners cut off, closed except form two openings which form its main axis. On the axis stood Girardon’s equestrian statue of the King, facing one of the openings. The buildings which surrounded the place were decorated with a colossal Order of pilasters, broken by frontispieces with half-columns at the centres of each side and at the cut-off corners.

In its general conception, as a piece of scenic architecture, the Place Vend�me is close to Roman Baroque architecture which could offer a brilliant solution to this type of problem in the Piazza of St Peter’s. In detail, however, it is restrained and relatively classical, presenting a compromise between classicism and Baroque.

From the eighteenth century the square has suffered increasing degradations, so that it is now hardly possible to imagine its original appearance.