Square of the “Opera.
At the time of its creation, along with that of the Opera of Charles Garnier, the square has the major advantage of giving to the pedestrian enough distance to admire the main facade of the building. It is also part of the transformations of urban planning of the city, wanted by Napoleon III, and materialized by Baron Haussmann , to facilitate the circulation of all kinds.
The place is particularly important with the passage of several lines of the metropolitan. At the dawn of the XXth century, a controversy was created. We are then in full swing of the “Art Nouveau” against ambient academicism and choosing the artist to achieve is problematic. The outputs “must be as majestic as the monument they serve.”
One of the first to be consulted, is naturally Hector Guimard, which carries out all orders of its kind for the city. After many debates, the height and style of the station designed by architect are judged in total disagreement with those of the Opera. The project of an air station metal structure quickly gives way to discrete outgoing mouths of the two medians we know today.
Square of the ” Madeleine.
It was formed in 1815 on lands depending on the ancient Church of the Madeleine, which probably was at the site of the current No. 8 Boulevard Malesherbes at the corner where the “rue (street) Pasquier ” joined the “rue (street)de la Ville-l’Évêque”.
The Madeleine church occupies the site of the hotel of Chevilly, which dated from 1728 and was located rue Basse-du-Rempart (absorbed in the Boulevard des Capucines).
Place de la Madeleine was adorned with two fountains, works of Gabriel Davioud. One of the fountains in front of No. 7 was moved in 1903 in the square located place Santiago (7th district) to meet the Avenue de la Motte-Picquet and the Boulevard de Latour Maubourg, to give way to a statue of Jules Simon. The other fountain, located on the other side of the square near the gallery of the Madeleine, was transferred in 1910 in the center of Francois I site to make way for a monument to Victorien Sardou.
