This book is the first study to examine a unique urban phenomenon that is closely associated with French monarchy in the age of absolutism. Featuring a free-standing statue of the monarch at its center, the place royale was framed by buildings of uniform, monumental design such as found in the Place Vendôme. In this study, Richard Cleary examines the places royales in terms of the political mechanisms and design processes through which they were conceived, their intended meanings for contemporaries, and their relationship to the urban fabrics of which they are a part.