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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Place de la Porte-de-Saint-Cloud is a public road located in the Auteuil district, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It occupies the site of the old gate of Saint-Cloud, integrated into the enclosure of Thiers, a fortification demolished in the 1920s. Created in 1928 by the City of Paris on the old bastions Nos. 65 and 66, it officially takes its current name by an order of 4 March 1929. The square is classified in the Paris road in 1932 and benefits from the label "Heritage of the twentieth century" because of its layout characteristic of this period.

In the centre of the square, the garden of the roundabout has been home since 1936 to the fountains of the gate of Saint-Cloud, installed at the location of the old grant barrier. These fountains, designed by architects Robert Pommier and Jacques Billard, as well as by sculptor Paul Landowski, are inspired by the ephemeral fairytales of universal exhibitions. Their elliptical basins, decorated with bas-reliefs and glass slabs, illustrate allegorical themes: the Seine bringing the riches of the earth to the south, and the representation of Paris to the north. The ensemble, purely decorative, announces the luminous stages of the 1937 Universal Exhibition.

The square also hosted, from 1935 to 1985, three monumental statues of animals originally exhibited at the World Exhibition of 1878 at the Trocadéro: Le Cheval à la Herse by Pierre Louis Rouillard, Le Jeune elephant caught in the trap of Emmanuel Frémiet, and Le Rhinocéros d'Henri-Alfred Jacquemart. These works, restored in 1986, have since been transferred to the parvis of the Musée d'Orsay. Among the other remarkable elements are the church of Sainte-Jeanne-de-Chantal and its garden, as well as the café Aux trous shells, witnesses of local heritage.

The square was remodeled in the early 2020s. Its fountains, basins and elliptical floor, including underground rooms housing technical devices, have been protected since 2016 by an inscription under the title of Historical Monuments. This site illustrates the urban evolution of Paris after the demolition of Thiers, marking the transition to an open and modern city.

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