Use of the Guillotine in Paris
Encyclopedia
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
was on April 25, 1792. The condemned was Nicolas Jacques Pellerier. He was executed in front of what is now the city hall of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, (Place de l'hôtel de ville). All citizens deemed guilty of a crime punishable by death were from then on executed there, until the scaffold was moved on August 21 to the Place du Carrousel
Place du Carrousel
The Place du Carrousel is a public square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, located at the open end of the courtyard of the Louvre museum, a space occupied, prior to 1871, by the Tuileries Palace...
.
After the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the executions began again in the city centre. On February 4, 1832, the guillotine was moved to behind the church of Saint Jacques, just before being moved again, to the Grande Roquette prison, on November 29, 1851.
On August 6, 1909, the guillotine was used on the junction of Arago Boulevard and Rue de la Santé, behind the prison which bears the same name.
King Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
and members of his family were executed with the use of the guillotine. Some protested that the guillotine was not painful or torturous enough, as the reason for its invention was to create a quick and painless end to criminals.