Place de la Bourse

The Place de la Bourse is the finest square in Bordeaux and one of the best examples of eighteenth-century French urban planning. It was built between about 1730 and 1755 under the intendant Claude Boucher, with the royal architects Jacques Gabriel and his son Jacques-Ange Gabriel, and it was designed to open the city to the Garonne. Until then Bordeaux was still a medieval town enclosed by walls and cut off from its river, and the new square, laid out as a grand royal space on the quay, marked a decisive break. It was first called Place Royale and was meant to celebrate King Louis XV, whose statue stood in the middle until it was removed at the time of the Revolution.

The square is framed by two large pavilions with a curved row of facades between them, in a restrained classical style, built in pale limestone. One of them was the Hôtel des Fermes, the customs and tax house, which today holds the National Customs Museum, and the other the Hôtel de la Bourse, the stock exchange, which is now home to the Chamber of Commerce. The facades are decorated with carved masks and garlands, and the rhythm of the arcades gives the square a unity that makes it a favourite of photographers. In 1869 the Fountain of the Three Graces replaced the royal statue at the centre of the square, a neoclassical group in stone and bronze that remains the focal point.

In front of the square, the Miroir d'eau, laid out in 2006, adds a modern touch by mirroring the facades in a thin sheet of water, and the broad promenade along the quay leads to the Pont de Pierre and the old town. The surroundings form part of the area inscribed by UNESCO in 2007 as Bordeaux, Port of the Moon, for the unity of the city's eighteenth-century architecture and its crescent shape along the river. Together the square and the mirror show how Bordeaux combined its history with modern landscape design.

The square is open at all hours, and there is no fee. It is at its best at sunrise and in the evening, when the stone glows and the lights come on, and busiest at midday in summer. Visitors can combine the square with the Cours de l'Intendance, the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux and the Basilique Saint-Michel, and with a walk along the river.

The square suits first-time visitors to Bordeaux, photographers and anyone interested in architecture and urban history. Allow half an hour to an hour, or more if you linger at the cafés.