barrière du Trône

The Barrière du Trône (Trône Gate) was a toll barrier (barrière d’octroi) in the wall of the Fermiers généraux (the tax farmers’ enclosure) that was built around Paris in the 1780s. It was part of a wall that, just prior to the French Revolution, surrounded Paris. The purpose of the wall, which was designed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux, was to facilitate the collection of municipal duties on merchandise entering Paris by reducing smuggling and fraud. It is located in eastern Paris and straddled what is now the 11th arrondissement and the 12th arrondissement. The barrier takes its name from its location on the former Place du Trône, now called place de la Nation.

This barrier was located on what is today the Avenue du Trône, near Place de la Nation (formerly known as Place du Trône). Its purpose was to facilitate the collection of taxes on goods entering the capital. It is one of four extant toll houses from among the 55 built under Ledoux's program (the other three are located at place de Denfert-Rochereau, place de Stalingrad and at an entryway to the Parc Monceau).

The barrière comprised two guardhouses flanking a grille about 60 meters wide. The guardhouses served as pedestals for two columns each 28 meters in height. On its eastern side, two identical toll houses on either side of the avenue du Trône housed offices and lodgings for the octroi officials. The barriére du Trône follows a typical plan for such toll houses inasmuch as it consists of two identical and perfectly symmetric houses. The other extant barrière that follows this same plan is the barrière de l’Enfer located at what is now place de Denfert-Rochereau. Together with the barrière de l’Étoile (which was demolished by Baron Haussmann), the barrière du Trône celebrated a royal entrance (the entry of Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse of Austria after their marriage) and for that reason was adorned with the additional decoration of two monumental columns.

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