Everything about Trocad Ro totally explained
The
Trocadéro, site of the
Palais de Chaillot, is an area of
Paris, in the
16th arrondissement, across the
Seine from the
Eiffel Tower. The hill of the Trocadéro is the hill of
Chaillot, a former village.
Origin of the name
In the
Battle of Trocadero, the fortified position on the
Bay of Cádiz in the south of
Spain, was captured on
August 31,
1823, by French forces led by the Duc d'Angoulême, son of the future king
Charles X. The goal was to intervene against the liberal Spanish who were rebelling against the autocracy of
Ferdinand VII. Trocadero restored the autocratic Spanish Bourbon Ferdinand to the throne of Spain, in an action that defined the
Restoration. The name
trocadero comes from the term referring to an emporium or place of trade.
The event was considered worthy of commemoration in Paris: the name
place du Trocadéro was given in
1877 (though the name had been associated with the area since 1823) to a square formerly known as the
place du Roi de Rome (for example, Place of the
King of Rome), the renaming being an example of discarding a reference to a defeated regime. Today that square is officially named
place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, though it's usually simply called the place du Trocadéro.
The stylish connotations of the Place du Trocadéro inspired, first, the
Trocadero Restaurant in London, and then multitudes of nightclubs and cinemas named "
Trocadero".
The old Palais du Trocadéro
The hill of Chaillot was first arranged for the
1867 World's Fair.
For the
1878 World's Fair, the (old)
Palais du Trocadéro was built here (where meetings of international organizations could be held during the fair). The palace's form was that of a large concert hall with two wings and two towers; its style was a mixture of exotic and historical references, generally called "
Moorish" but with some
Byzantine elements. The architect was
Gabriel Davioud. The concert hall contained a large
organ built by
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the first large organ to be installed in a concert hall in France. It was removed to a hall in
Lyon and subsequently destroyed by fire. The building proved unpopular, though the cost expended in its construction delayed its replacement for nearly fifty years.
Below the building, in the space left by former underground quarries, a large aquarium was built to contain fishes of French rivers. It was renovated in
1937 but closed again for renovation in
1985. The space between the palais and the Seine is set with gardens, designed by
Jean-Charles Alphand, and an array of fountains.
The new Palais de Chaillot
For the
Exposition Internationale of 1937, the old Palais du Trocadéro was demolished and replaced by the
Palais de Chaillot which now tops the hill. It was designed in classicizing "
moderne" style by architects
Louis-Hippolyte Boileau,
Jacques Carlu and
Léon Azéma. Like the old palais, the palais de Chaillot features two wings shaped to form a wide arc: indeed, these wings were built on the foundations of those of the former building. However, unlike the old palais, the wings are independent buildings and there's no central element to connect them: instead, a wide esplanade leaves an open view from the place du Trocadéro to the Eiffel Tower and beyond.
The buildings are decorated with quotations by
Paul Valéry, and they now house a number of museums:
It was on the front terrace of the palace that
Adolf Hitler was pictured during his short tour of the vanquished city in 1940, with the Eiffel Tower in the background. This became an iconic image of the
Second World War.
It is in the Palais de Chaillot that the
United Nations General Assembly adopted the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights on
December 10,
1948. This event is now commemorated by a stone, and the esplanade is known as the
esplanade des droits de l'homme ("esplanade of human rights").
Others
Five avenues come from the Trocadéro: the
avenue Henri-Martin which goes to the
porte de la Muette and passes in front of the
lycée Janson de Sailly (Janson de Sailly secondary school); the
avenue Paul Doumer which goes to the Muette; the
avenue d'Eylau which goes to the place of Mexico; the
avenue Kléber which goes to the
place de l'Etoile; and the
avenue d'Iéna which go to the
musée Guimet. There is a big municipal library near the Trocadéro's square.
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