Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité - and their sister Guillotine

Place de la Concorde / I.A. Daglis           

During the French Revolution the new revolutionary government erected the guillotine in the Place de la Concorde (called Place de la Révolution), and the first notable to be executed was king Louis XVI, on January 21, 1793. Other important figures guillotined on the site, often in front of cheering crowds, were Georges Danton, Antoine Lavoisier, Maximilien Robespierre, and Louis de Saint-Just. The guillotine was most active during the "Reign of Terror", when an estimated 18,000 to 40,000 people were executed. In the summer of 1794, in a single month more than 1,300 people were executed. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.