The _Place de Vendome_, formed upon the site of a hotel that belonged to
the Duke de Vendome, was begun by Louis XIV., who, in 1685, purchased
and leveled the hotel, intending to erect, round a public place,
edifices for the royal library, the mint, the extraordinary embassadors,
&c. This project, however, was abandoned, and the property ceded to the
city of Paris, with a stipulation to erect a _place_ upon the site.
Mansard, who furnished the first plans, was charged with the second; and
the buildings, as they now stand, were begun in 1699, and finished by
the financier Law. The form of the place is a symmetrical octagon, the
larger sides of which measure respectively, four hundred and twenty and
four hundred and fifty feet. Two wide streets, forming the only
entrances to it, the _Rue de la Paix_ and the _Rue de Castiglione_,
equisect its northern and southern sides. The buildings are uniform,
consisting of a rustic basement surmounted by upper stories, ornamented
with Corinthian pilasters, and high roofs pierced with lucarne windows.
The middle of each side is graced with a pediment supported by
Corinthian columns. This place was first called the _Place des
Conquêtes_, then the _Place Louis le Grand_, and afterward the _Place
Vendome_. In the middle formerly stood a colossal equestrian statue of
Louis XIV., in bronze, erected in 1669, but demolished the tenth of
August, 1792; the bronze figures that ornamented its base were saved,
and are still to be seen in the _Musée de la Sculpture Moderne_. The
mutilated pedestal remained till 1806, when it was replaced by the
triumphal pillar, erected by Napoleon, to commemorate the success of his
arms in the German campaign of 1805. This column is an imitation of the
pillar of Trajan at Rome, of which it preserves the proportions on a
scale larger by one-twelfth. Its total elevation is one hundred and
thirty-five feet, and the diameter of the shaft is twelve feet. The
pedestal is twenty-one feet in hight, and from seventeen to twenty in
breadth. The pedestal and shaft are of stone, covered with bass-reliefs,
representing victories of the French army, in bronze, made from twelve
hundred pieces of brass cannon taken from the Russians and Austrians.
The metal employed in this monument weighs about three hundred and sixty
thousand pounds. The bass-reliefs of the pedestal represent the
uniforms, armor and weapons of the conquered troops. Above the pedestal
are garlands of oak, supported at the four angles by eagles, each
weighing five hundred pounds. The door, of massive bronze, is decorated
with crowns of oak, surmounted by an eagle of the highest finish; above
is a bass-relief, representing two figures of Fame, supporting a tablet,
with an inscription in honor of Napoleon, and commemorating the
victories which the column was erected to celebrate. The bass-reliefs of
the shaft pursue a spiral direction to the capital, and display, in
chronological order, the principal actions, from the departure of the
troops from Boulogne to the battle of Austerlitz. The figures are three
feet high; their number is said to be two thousand, and the length of
the scroll eight hundred and forty feet; a spiral thread divides the
lines, and bears inscriptions of the actions they represent. The figure
of Napoleon on the top of the column, is eleven feet high. The statue of
Napoleon, in imperial robes, was melted down in 1814, to form a part of
the equestrian statue of Henry IV., but was replaced by Louis Philippe,
May first, 1832, clad in military costume, shrouded by crape. From the
summit of the monument, which is reached by a spiral staircase, there is
a splendid view of the capital, and admission is obtained through one of
Napoleon’s veterans, who keeps the door.