Square du Temple

Paris - La Belle Époque

The Square du Temple is a garden in Paris, France in the 3rd arrondissement, established in 1857. It is one of 24 city squares planned and created by Georges-Eugène Haussmann and Jean-Charles Alphand. The Square occupies the site of a medieval fortress in Paris, built by the Knights Templar. Parts of the fortress were later used as a prison during the French Revolution, and then demolished by the mid 19th century.

History

Knights Templar

The Knights Templar began in the 12th century, constructing a fort first (Vieux Temple or Old Temple) in Le Marais. In the 13th century, a new fortress was built as their European headquarters. The enclosure, called enclos du Temple, originally featured a number of buildings important to the running of the Order, and included a church and a massive turreted keep known as Grosse Tour (great tower), and a smaller tower called Tour de César (Caesar's Tower).

The location of the towers is drawn on the floor in front of the town hall, rue Eugene Spuller. The heavy doors of the Grosse Tour still exist and are kept at Château de Vincennes whose great keep, attributed to Raymond du Temple, is speculated to have been inspired by the nearby Templar fortress. French Revolution

The Temple is also known for having been the place where the French royal family was jailed at the time of the Revolution. Members of the royal family imprisoned at the Temple's tower were:

   King Louis XVI, from 13 August 1792 to 21 January 1793, when he was taken to be guillotined at the Place de la Révolution;
   Marie Antoinette, from 13 August 1792 to 1 August 1793 in the Temple's tower. She was then brought to the Conciergerie, from where she eventually was also taken to the guillotine;
   Madame Élisabeth, who stayed for 21 months at the tower before being taken on 9 May 1794 to the Conciergerie and guillotined the following day;
   Louis XVII, from 13 August 1792 until his death of tuberculosis at the tower on 8 June 1795, at the age of ten;
   Princess Marie-Thérèse, who stayed at the tower for three years and four months before being sent into exile.

Demolition

By 1808, the Temple had become a place of pilgrimage for royalists, so Napoleon ordered its demolition, which took two years. Remnants were demolished around 1860 under orders from Napoleon III.

In 1811 a wooden structure was erected on the site to house a permanent market called the Carreau du Temple, which was replaced by the current cast iron, brick and glass structure in 1863. The market specializes in selling clothes.

1900

Today its location is a station of the Paris Metro, serving the carreau du temple (covered market) and the Palais de Justice (Courthouse) of the third arrondissement.

The garden includes a gazebo, a playground for children, lawns with the largest open to the public from April 15 to October 15, fountains and a pond with an artificial waterfall, on rocks from the forest of Fontainebleau. The grid surrounding the square was designed by the architect Gabriel Davioud. The square contains almost 200 varieties of plants, including many exotic species, such as hazel, a Ginkgo biloba, a Honey Locust of America, a ptérocaryer Caucasus, goldenrain tree, Cedrela, and Chinese quince.