GABRIEL, Ange-Jacques
(b. 1698, Paris, d. 1782, Paris)

General view

1730-55
Photo
Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux

In eighteenth-century France, the royal squares became the main expression of a monumental conception of towns. There is no city that is not beholden to the charm and openness of these spectacular squares. The landscaping of royal squares provided an occasion for partial urban redevelopment in the towns where they were built. In Bordeaux the three-sided Place Royal (today called Place de la Bourse) was built by Ange-Jacques Gabriel at the river's edge. It was in Bordeaux that the idea of "programmed ensemble" along the lines of Place Vendôme took shape, adapted to the site beginning 1743 by Claude Boucher.