Place de Jaude is the main square of Clermont-Ferrand and the natural gathering point at the heart of the city. The square is overlooked by the Théâtre Municipal, a classical 19th-century building, and dominated by a large equestrian statue of Vercingetorix — the Gaulish chieftain who led the final resistance against Julius Caesar — by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who later designed the Statue of Liberty. The statue gives the square a somewhat heroic air.
Tram lines converge on the square, which makes it a practical hub for getting around the city. The pedestrianised streets leading north and east toward the cathedral are the main shopping and café zone of the old town. The surrounding streets hold the highest concentration of restaurants in the city. On summer evenings the terraces fill and the square becomes one of the more pleasant urban spaces in central France — active, busy, with the dark cathedral spires visible above the roofline to the north.