Place Benjamin Zix
Cobbled canal-side square named for a Napoleonic-era draughtsman, ringed by half-timbered tanners' houses.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Place Benjamin Zix in Strasbourg follows the draughtsman born near this square in 1772, who sketched Napoleon's soldiers and caught the eye of Dominique Vivant Denon, the man building the Louvre's collection. It traces Zix's years crossing Europe at Denon's side, drawing what the empire looted, admired and commemorated, from Goethe's portrait to the Vendome Column's reliefs. It also follows the decades-long dispute over what to name this square after him, once a tanners' ditch filled in long after his death.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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