Place du Général Catroux was created in 1862. It is formally known as Place Malesherbes and was nicknamed “Place des Trois Dumas” honouring the 3 statues for the Dumas family: a) Alexandre Dumas (fils), b) a monument to Alexandre Dumas (père) and, c) a sculpture to General Dumas, father and grandfather who was born a slave and whose statue represents the broken chains of a slave (below).
Above: The bronze statue of Alexandre Dumas père (1802-1870) was sculpted by Gustave Doré in 1883. Every year on May 10th, the garden hosts a ceremony in honour of the victims of slavery, on the occasion of the National Day of Remembrance of the slave trade, slavery, and its abolition.
Above: on the opposite side of the monument to Alexandre Dumas (père) is a statue of d’Artagnan, the French Musketeer who served Louis XIV as captain of the Musketeers of the Guard; he was later known as Count d’Artagnan. D’Artagnan died at the siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War. He was famous for his connection with the arrest of Nicolas Fouquet (see Vaux le Vicomte).
Above: statue of Sarah Bernhardt, French actress, painter and sculptor by François Sicard. She had a hotel at the end of the square, on the corner of Avenue de Villiers and Rue Fortuny. Behind the statue is the Hôtel Gaillard, a former private mansion built by Jules Février between 1878 and 1882 for the banker Émile Gaillard. It houses the Cité de l’Économie which opened to the public on June 14, 2019.
Pl. du Général Catroux, 17th Arrondissement, 75017 Paris, France. Place du Général Catroux is served by Malesherbes Métro on Line 3 of the Paris Métro. It is also easily walkable from areas such as Rome.