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Origin and history

The Throne Barrier, also known as the Vincennes Barrier, was a barrier of grant built in the second half of the eighteenth century on the plans of architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. Located on the current avenue du Throne, near Place de la Nation (former Place du Throne), it marked a royal entrance into Paris. Composed of two 28-metre columns with a 60-metre grid, it was used to collect taxes on goods entering the capital. Two side pavilions housed the offices of the grant clerks.

Between June and July 1794 the guillotine was installed there, resulting in the execution of 1,306 people, whose bodies were buried in temporary pits before the creation of the Picpus cemetery. This place also became a symbol of resistance: on March 30, 1814, students of the École polytechnique defy the coalized troops (Russian, Prussian, Austrian) with a battery of 28 cannons, an episode commemorated in 1914 by the statue Le Conscrit of 1814.

In 1845, the columns were surmounted by bronze statues representing Philippe Auguste (by Auguste Dumont) and Saint Louis (by Antoine Etex). Ranked a historic monument in 1907, the barrier underwent important restorations between 2008 and 2010 to save its broken stones. Today, the pavilions house social housing, while the columns, always visible, mark access to the course of Vincennes.

Photographed by Hippolyte Bayard (1849) and Eugene Atget (1903-1904), the barrier illustrates the architectural and political heritage of the French Revolution and the 19th century. Its history combines taxation, revolutionary repression, national resistance and urban heritage, reflecting the upheavals of Paris between the Ancient Regime and the contemporary era.

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