Place de la Concorde began as Place Louis XV in 1755, a royal square built to showcase an equestrian statue of the king. The statue lasted just 37 years before revolutionaries melted it down for cannons. What followed was rather less genteel: the square became Place de la Révolution, and its new centrepiece was the guillotine. Between 1793 and 1795, more than 1,100 heads rolled here, including those of Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette.

Today's obelisk, a 3,300-year-old gift from Egypt's viceroy in 1831, was chosen precisely because it couldn't offend any political faction. The hieroglyphs depict Ramesses II's achievements, though the gold-leafed capstone is a modern French addition from 1998.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the square's violent transformations, from royal grandeur through revolutionary terror to its current role as Paris's grandest traffic roundabout, explaining how each regime literally reshaped this space to match its politics.