Place de Grève

The Place de Grève was, before 1803, the name of the plaza now the City Hall Plaza (place de l'Hôtel de Ville) in Paris, France.

It used to be a meeting place, and also the location where unemployed people sought prospective employers; this probably resulted in the current French idioms of être en grève (to be on strike).

Nevertheless, the reason why the place de Grève is mostly remembered is that it was the site of most executions in Paris. The gallows and the pillory stood there.

The highest-profile executions took place in the Grève, including the gruesome deaths of the regicides Jacques Clément, François Ravaillac, Robert–François Damiens. In the words of Victor Hugo (the Hunchback of Notre Dame), the grève was the symbol of medieval and ancien régime justice: brutal, corrupt and inadequate.