Place Kléber

History

In the past named Barfüsserplatz ( place of the German tramp in , because of the presence of a Monastery Franciscain), it becomes the Waffenplatz at the 17th century ( place of Weapons in German), then the place Kléber the June 24th 1840, during the inauguration of the mausoleum to the glory of the general of Strasbourg Jean-Baptiste Kléber, statue the representative in foot, under which a vault contains its coffin since 1838. From 1940 to 1944, the place is famous Karl Roos Platz , according to the Alsatian separatist killed by the French soldiers in 1940.

After having been the heart of the network of old the Tram (1886 - 1960), then vast carpark of surface, crossing of a road way, the place was refitted in a way discussed in 1994 by the Architecte Guy Clapot.

This transformation was done within the framework of the pietonisation of the historical center of the city, as within the framework of the return of the Tramway whose lines has and D cross the western fringe of the place, in the prolongation of the street of Francs-Bourgeois.

In 2007, the Kléber Place is entirely refitted (concomitantly with the complete reorganization of the small island of the Aubette). Green areas (according to the schedule of conditions of the landscape designer Gilles Clement) and of long water basins surrounded by stone of Gneiss make their appearance.

The bus shelter

The place is bordered on its northern side by the Aubette, neo-classic building built at the 18th century within the framework of the plane of embellishment Blondel.

Built in 1778, the Bus shelter, large and splendid palate of traditional style was first of all a body of guard, not whose were transmitted the orders to the paddle, from where its name.

Academy of music towards the end of the 19th century, the building shelters then a complex of leisures decorated in 1928 by the artists Theo van Doesburg, Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and very quickly regarded by some the experts as the Chapelle Sixtine of the Modern art .

Today, the Aubette is in the center of a project of reconversion and rehabilitation which will see the birth of shops and top-of-the-range restaurants on nearly 6000 m ² of surface.

The statue of Kléber

June 14th 1800, with the Cairo, Soleyman el-Halaby, a young Syrian student, assassinates the general Jean-Baptiste Kléber. The supreme commander of the army of Egypt is then with the ridge of his glory: he gained, three months earlier, the victory of Héliopolis, taking again High-Egypt with the Turks and the English. The glory of Kléber exceeds then that of Bonaparte. Its assassination makes it pass from glory to the legend. The death of Kléber is thus a concern for Bonaparte. Not question thus of celebrating state funeral to him, nor to even give him a burial which could very quickly become a republican place of pilgrimage. With the Cairo, one embaume the body, one deposits it in a lead coffin, laid out itself in a coffin of oak and one buries it at the height Ibrahim.

Fianalement, in 1818, Louis XVIII ordered that one transfers ashes from Jean-Baptiste Kléber to Strasbourg, his birthplace.

The body of Jean-Baptiste Kléber rests since December 15th 1838 in a vault located under its statue at the center of the Kléber place. The statue, works of Philippe Grass of 1840, represents the general in feet, holding the letter of the admiral Keith who asked for the capitulation of the French troops. Kléber was addressed then to its troops: “Soldiers, one does not answer such an insolence that by victories. Prepare you to fight”. The Turkish army conveyed by the British was crushed by the troops of Kléber. The inauguration of this statue was made with a certain embarrassment by the authorities of the time. It was indeed the time of the Monarchie of July and the reconciliation and the lapse of memory of the last conflicts. The city thus organized a great festival for the inauguration of the statue of Gutenberg, consensual subject and rassemblor, whereas the inauguration of the statue of Kléber was done much more discreetly 10 days earlier in June 1840.

The red house

On this site was set up, with 22-24 place Kleber, towards the end of the XIXe century a splendid building style Guillaume II, baptized “the Red House”. Towards the end of the year 1960, decision was made to shave the architectural unit to build a shopping mall there.

This one was set up in 1978 by the architect François Herrenschmidt in a post-modern style, with a patchwork of glazed big spaces, and an unequal surface.

The building, baptized to him-also “Red House” is always in the center of a polemic on the destruction of the old building.

The Christmas tree

At the time of traditional the Christkindlmärik, celebrates it gone of Christmas of Strasbourg, a monumental Christmas tree come from the the Vosges and richly decorated is planted in the south-eastern angle of the place.

A central place

The place was useful, until work of reconversion of the place, point of rallying to the great demonstrations, which they are organized or spontaneous, with the image of sports events (celebration of the French victory at the time of the Football world cup of 1998, finale of the cut of the League gained in 2005 by RC Strasbourg) or policies (demonstrations anti CPE in 2006 or at the evening of the 1st turn of the presidential elections of 2002).

Until 2003, the Kléber place accommodated one of the main markets of the city, Wednesday and Friday.

These events made it possible to note that the place was central not only for the Of Strasbourg one, but also for the tourists and the inhabitants of the agglomeration and his broad periphery, since one saw there converging a great number of people living the whole of the area of influence of Strasbourg.

Bonds

Random links: