Place des Vosges, the oldest square in Paris, was inaugurated in 1612 as Place Royale. It is made up of 36 symmetrical houses featuring ground-floor arcades, steep slate roofs and large dormer windows, surrounding a leafy square with four symmetrical fountains and an 1829 copy of a mounted statue of Louis XIII. The name was changed in 1800 to commemorate the Vosges département, the first in France to pay their taxes.