La Conciergerie and The Terror
La Conciergerie , situated in a gothic palace next to the Palais de Justice on the Isle de la Cite in the centre of Paris, was the site of some of the most historic events during the French Revolution.
Originally this was a royal palace , the Palais de La Cite, it’s prestige enhanced by the construction by Louis IX of Saint Chapelle , the exquisite royal chapel next door in the 13th century.
During the period known as The Terror,more than four thousand people were guillotined and many were held in La Conciergerie which had been converted into a prison.
They included Marie Antoinette ,the wife of Louis the XVI, whose execution was a pivotal moment in the Revolution.
It was from La Conciergerie that the doomed were taken in an open cart to La Place de La Concorde where they were publicly guillotined.
After the guillotining of the King in 1789
The young Republic was beset by instability including armed uprisings in the west of France
The Committee of Public Safety was formed which was supposed to help protect the the Government but the Committee turned into a de facto government itself and soon a dictatorship. Anti revolutionary suspects were rounded up and even supporters of the Revolution itself who were thought to be plotting against the Government.
Revolutionary Tribunals were formed and thousands of executions followed, including that , finally, of Maximillian Robespierre seen as the architect of what became known as The Terror.
The revolutionary government was ultimately overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799.
Destination – France
