Place Broglie Audio Guide

Place Broglie: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Place Broglie

   Welcome to Place Broglie, one of the main squares of Strasbourg. You are on the Grande Île, the ancient island heart of the city. Locals know the square in Alsatian German as Bröjel. Look along its shape first. It is a long, elongated rectangle, about 275 meters from end to end and only about 50 meters wide, so it feels more like a grand open avenue than a typical square. The buildings around it read like a roll call of civic power: the Opera House, the City Hall, the Governor's Palace, the Prefect's Palace, the Strasbourg building of the Banque de France, and the historic officers' mess. Over the next few stops, we will go back to the medieval market, look at the cannons on a famous façade, hear how a war song was born nearby, and follow the square through speeches, monuments and Christmas lights. Let's start walking.

2. 02

   From Medieval Fairground to Marshal's Promenade

   Place Broglie began as a matter of city limits. In the early thirteenth century, Strasbourg widened its defensive walls, and the new protected area swallowed up this large open space. It was soon used as a place for fairs and markets. In a medieval town, open space was a luxury, and this one was put to work. The square's character changed in 1740. That year, Marshal de Broglie, the military commander, had trees planted here and gave his name to the new promenade. The walk was closed off by a wall, and lime trees and plane trees were planted in three rows. Before that, the Poor Clares convent had closed one side of the square. In the sixteenth century it became an arsenal, and later the officers' mess. So as you stand here, you are on a spot that has been a marketplace, a military parade ground and an elegant place to stroll, each layer adding to the last.

3. 03

   Eleven Cannons and the Opera's Grand Forecourt

   Turn your attention to the building that used to be the officers' mess. Its façade is marked by 11 cannon carriages, a reminder of the site's military past, from the days when the old convent was turned into an arsenal. It is a rare thing to see weapons used as decoration on a building that sits so calmly on a promenade. Now look to the eastern end of the square, where the Opera House stands. Strasbourg's municipal theater was completed in the early nineteenth century, and today it houses the Opéra du Rhin. Its arrival gave the square a new role: Place Broglie became the theater's grand forecourt, the place where the city arrives to be seen. Between them stand the other grand neighbors you heard about earlier: the City Hall, the Governor's Palace and the Prefect's Palace. Together they make the long rectangle feel like a stage set for the city's public life.

4. 04

   A War Song, a General's Speech and Three Monuments

   This square has seen some of France's best-known moments. A famous story is attached to a house on Place Broglie: the mayor of Strasbourg, Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, received news of the war declared on the Austrian emperor and asked the young officer Rouget de Lisle to compose a war song. That song became the Marseillaise. The scene was later painted, and the painting hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts of Strasbourg. Tradition also says the anthem was first heard in public right here, in front of the City Hall. Beside the City Hall, a monument by Alfred Marzolff, from 1922, honors the song. On the seventh of April 1947, General de Gaulle spoke from the City Hall to a crowd of more than 50,000 people. That speech also marked the creation of the Rassemblement du Peuple Français. Two other monuments stand close by. A sandstone obelisk with bronze statues, by Georges Saupique, was inaugurated in 1951. It commemorates Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque and the liberation of Strasbourg on the twenty-third of November 1944. Nearby, a statue of François Christophe de Kellermann by Léon-Alexandre Blanchot dates from 1935.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Place Broglie is still very much a living square. Since 1870 it has hosted the Christmas market, known in Alsace as the Christkindelsmärik, and it is also home to one of the city's best-known markets. The old fairground tradition from the thirteenth century is not entirely gone; it just wears different clothes. If you need to get here or move on, the square is a stop on the Strasbourg tramway, served by lines B, C and F. Before you leave, walk its full length once. Notice how the Opera House closes one view while the long line of trees and façades pulls your eye the other way. Spot the 11 cannon carriages, then find the three monuments. Each one, like the square itself, carries a different chapter of the story of Strasbourg.