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Origin of the name de la Concorde
The de la Concorde station name
refers to De la Concorde Boulevard, so named by the administration of the
former municipality of Pont-Viau, today a sector of Laval, on June 21, 1956.
The initial section of De la Concorde Boulevard is located in a area where
proper street names were inspired by place names in France, such as
Normandie, Louvre and Nantes. The name De la Concorde refers to Place de la
Concorde, one of the largest public squares in Paris. Tucked between the
Tuileries Gardens and the Champs-Élysées, the former Place Louis XV was
initially designed by the architect Jacques-Ange Gabriel in 1755 and
completed in 1775. At the time, the square was dominated by an equestrian
statue of Louis XV, which was later destroyed in August 1792, during the
French Revolution. From 1833 to 1846, the architect Hittorf is commissioned
to redesign it, and he oversaw the creation of two fountains, eight statues
representing the great cities of France and the Obelisk of Luxor. During the
first years of its existence, the square bore several names: Place Louis XV
(1755-1792,1814-1826), Place de la Révolution (1792-1795), Place de la
Concorde (1795-1814) and Place Louis XVI (1826-1830), before permanently
becoming Place de la Concorde in 1830. That name was in reference to the
reconciliation of French citizens after the excesses of the Reign of Terror,
a period of French history between 1792 and 1795 that was marked by numerous
conflicts following the Revolution.
Source : Service du Greffe – Division de
la gestion documentaire, Ville de Laval, mars 2007
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