The Place de la Comédie is the main focal point of the city of Montpellier

Montpellier

-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

, in the Hérault

Hérault

Hérault is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.-History:Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

 département in southern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It is located at the south-west point of the city centre, at 43°36′30"N 3°52′47"E, where in previous times the fortifications of the city were located.

History

The square is first mentioned in 1755 and is named after the theatre located there, which burned down in 1785 and 1855.

The Place became the main focal point of the city when, in the mid-19th century the main railway station (Gare de Montpellier Saint-Roch

Gare de Montpellier Saint-Roch

Saint-Roch is the main railway station in Montpellier, France. The station was formerly known as Gare de Montpellier, but since March 2005 it bears the name of Saint Roch, a native of the city, who was born in the 14th century...

) was built some 200 metres south of it. At that time, a smaller train going to the nearby beach at Palavas-les-Flots

Palavas-les-Flots

Palavas-les-Flots is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.-Geography:Palavas is a seaside resort, some six km south of Montpellier, at the Gulf of Lion and the Mediterranean Sea. It lies on a strip of sand dunes that separates two lakes, the Étang de...

 also had its provenance on the Place.

Location

At the center of the square is a fountain called the Three Graces

Charites

In Greek mythology, a Charis is one of several Charites , goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea , Euphrosyne , and Thalia . In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces"...

, built by sculptor Étienne d'Antoine in 1790. The original piece was placed in the Musée Fabre

Musée Fabre

The Musée Fabre is a museum in the southern French city of Montpellier, capital of the Hérault département.The museum was founded by François-Xavier Fabre, a Montpellier painter, in 1825. Beginning in 2003, the museum underwent a 61.2 million euro renovation, which was completed in January 2007...

 in 1989, but moved again during the refurbishment of the museum to the Opéra Comédie, which is located at the square.

At its northeastern corner the square continues into the Esplanade de Charles de Gaulle, a small park connecting the Place to the Corum

Corum (Montpellier)

Montpellier's Corum is a building that houses both a conference centre and a opera house, and is located in the centre of the city in southern France....

, a large concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 and granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 complex built by Claude Vasconi

Claude Vasconi

Claude Vasconi was a French architect.Vasconi was educated at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et de l'Industrie in Strasbourg. In 1964, he set up office in Paris...

. At its southeastern corner it is linked to the Lycée Joffre, formerly the Citadel of Montpellier

Citadel of Montpellier

The Citadel of Montpellier is an Early Modern fortification in the city of Montpellier, in the Hérault département of southern France. It was built between 1624 and 1627, after several rebellions under the orders of Louis XIII in order to keep watch over the town...

.