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Origin and history

The Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, formerly called Place de Grève until 1803, is located in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, between the banks of the Seine and Rue de Rivoli. This place, once a strike (sand beach and gravel) on the banks of the Seine, became in the 12th century a major port for unloading goods such as wood, wheat or wine. Its name "Grant" comes from this flat and gravelly land, and gave birth to the expression "to strike", originally meaning "to look for work" in this place.

In the Middle Ages, the Place de Grève was a place of public execution and torture, with a permanent gibet installed in the center. The first recorded execution dates from 1310, with the stake of Marguerite Porette, a heretic. The square also housed a Gothic cross serving the prayers of the condemned and warning of flooding. Under the Ancien Régime, it was the scene of famous executions, such as those of François Ravaillac (killer of Henry IV) or Robert-François Damiens (attack against Louis XV), as well as ceremonies such as the fire of Saint John, lit by the king until 1648.

The square was profoundly transformed in the 19th century, especially during the Second Empire, with its extension to Rivoli Street and the alignment of surrounding buildings. In 1803 it was renamed "place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville" and in 2013 became the "place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville – esplanade de la Libération" in tribute to the liberators of Paris in 1944. The Town Hall, rebuilt after the Commune of 1871, still dominates the square, which was pedestrianized in 1982. Today, it hosts animations and vegetated spaces, while maintaining a historical memory marked by its judicial and festive past.

The square was also a public market place until 1141, when a charter of Louis VII the Young removed this market at the request of the bourgeois of Paris. It was then used as a framework for municipal festivals, fireworks (as in 1653 for Louis XIV), but also for autodafés, such as the Talmuds in 1242, reflecting the religious tensions of the time. The guillotine was installed there during the Revolution, with notable executions such as those of Carrier or Fouquier-Tinville in 1795.

Architecturally, the square evolved with the construction of the Town Hall, first in the form of the "House aux Piliers" acquired by Étienne Marcel in 1357, then replaced by a Renaissance building commissioned by François I in 1533. The present building, rebuilt after 1871, retains a neo-renaissance façade. The square gradually absorbed adjacent streets (like Rue du Mouton) and lost its patibular role in 1832, when the executions were transferred to Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques.

Today, the square combines heritage and modernity: in 2025, it will host 50 trees and 20,000 plants, while the former headquarters of the AP-HP (until 2022) gives way to a third-place citizen, "Les Arches". A historical sign still recalls past traditions, such as the stake of cats during Saint John, or the executions that made his sinister reputation, immortalized by Victor Hugo in Notre-Dame de Paris (1831).

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