The square it sits in has so far been called (in this order) place Louis XV, place de la Révolution, place de la Concorde, place Louis XV (again), place Louis XVI, place de la Chartre and (for the time being) place de la Concorde (again!). But before the obelisk occupied this square, there was the guillotine—one that saw the removal of nearly 3,000 heads (including Louis XVI's and Marie Antoinette's) between 1793 and 1795.
North of the obelisk is the Hôtel Crillon, where in happier times Marie Antoinette took piano lessons, and where in 1778 France (first in the world) signed a treaty recognizing a free and independent United States of America.
