The Festival of Unity on the Place de la Révolution (currently the Place de la Concorde)
The Place de la Révolution was primarily a public square where people organized large ceremonies. On August 10, 1793, during the Festival of Union, a large crowd gathered at the base of the new statue of Liberty. Oak trees decorated with tricolor ribbons, red caps, hymns, inscriptions and even civic paintings surrounded the statue. As a sign of liberty, thousands of birds were released. At the same time, deputies watched the former symbols of the monarchy burn in a gigantic pyre.
Destruction by fire during the Revolution: an act of vandalism?
As of the beginning of the French Revolution: flames crackled throughout Paris. At first it was the dozens of tollgates that burned in July 1789. Likewise, furniture and paintings from the rich properties of the Réveillon pleasure palace or the Hôtel de Castries were thrown out of windows and then burned. After August 10, 1792, symbols of feudalism or the monarchy were then ritually burned during official celebrations. And yet, the revolutionaries were not pyromaniacs. These fires were not meant to destroy everything blindly, but to send a message: the Ancien Régime was no more.
Third Festival of the Federation on the Champ-de-Mars. The People Dance around a Burning Genealogical Tree on July 14, 1792
