Why was the place de la concorde built?

Travel Info
it was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1754 and completed it in 1763, but why did they build it? i can't find the answer anywhere :(

thanks!

Travel Tips

The Place de la Concorde stands at the junction of the Champs-Elys茅es and the primary axis of the Tuileries Gardens.

The Tuileries gardens were at one time part of the grounds of the Palais des Tuileries (the palace was destroyed in 1871).

The Champs-Elys茅es was orignally built in 1616 by Marie de Medici (wife of King Henry IV of France,) as a place to go riding. The surrounding area at that time consisted of wooded land and vegatable gardens.

By the early 1700's the Champs-Elys茅es had been replanted with neat rows of trees and the Rond Point where the Arc de Triomphe now stands had roads leading from it into the surrounding woodlands and fields.

In 1724 the Champs was directly connected to the main axis of the Tuileries gardens and the newly cleared area became the Place du Pont Tournant.

As time passed the area around Champs-Elys茅es became built up and the creation of a more elegant junction for that street and the Tuilleries Palace resulted in Gabriel's 1755 redesign.

Others
Actually, it is a town square. It was designed by Gabriel, but he included statues and beautiful fountains, originally naming it Place Louis XV, in honor of Louis XV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/place_de_la...
Try this site:
http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/place...
The city of Paris decides, in 1748, to set up an equestrian statue of Louis XV to celebrate the re-establishment of the king after a disease.

A contest is launched to find the best site, contest in which nineteen architects take part, among which Boffrand and Soufflot.

One of them, Angel-Jacques Gabriel, proposes to retain a simple beaten ground esplanade, without function, without drawing, which is located at the end of the "jardin des tuileries", and which one calls "esplanade du Pont-Tournant".

Although if it's not in the center of the town, the place can be used for the urbanization of the new districts which tend to be built towards the west of the capital, in the Saint-Honor茅 suburb.
Personnal translation of a French article. I hope that it will answer your question, even if my english is bad. ;o)