Place de la Liberté

The square was named Place du Pilori in 1307 and it was here that criminals were exposed to the crowd as an example. When the city was taken by the English in 1346, the district was burned down and this episode marked the beginning of the economic decline of the square. During the Revolution, the guillotine was installed there and was still used long afterwards! As in 1822 when Jean-Baptiste Breton, known as Berton (1769 - 1822), a general of the Empire who distinguished himself during the Napoleonic campaigns and was a conspirator against Louis XVIII, because he was nostalgic for the Empire, was arrested, judged and then guillotined on October 5. He died shouting "Long live liberty". In memory of these last words, the square was renamed Place de la Liberté in 1900 and in 1903, the Masonic Lodge erected a Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, a reduced copy of Bartholdi's work offere