Officials in Paris want to rename square after Princess Diana

Officials will vote on the proposal next month.

ByIbtissem Guenfoud
May 30, 2019, 11:24 AM

PARIS -- More than two decades after Princess Diana's death, the Paris city council announced that a square near the tunnel where she died in a car crash should be named after her.

The square, near Paris' Alma Bridge, was originally supposed to be named after famous Greek singer Maria Callas, who died in 1977 in Paris. The inauguration was canceled when Diana tragically died in August 1997.

PHOTO: People walk around the "Liberty Flame" where fans memorialized Princess Diana after her death in Paris, Aug. 31, 2017.
People walk around the "Liberty Flame" where fans memorialized Princess Diana after her death in Paris, Aug. 31, 2017.
AFP/Getty Images, FILE

Since then, crowds of tourists have come to consider the square above the tunnel a place of pilgrimage and an unofficial memorial ground for Diana. It is home to the "Flame of Liberty," a replica of the torch on the Statue of Liberty in New York.

PHOTO: Police seal off the tunnel as the jury from the Coroner's inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed enter the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, Oct. 8, 2007.
Police seal off the tunnel as the jury from the Coroner's inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed enter the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, Oct. 8, 2007.
AFP/Getty Images, FILE

The council will vote on the decision to name the square "Diana, Princess of Wales" next month.

PHOTO: Princess Diana poses for a photo at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, England, July 18, 1986.
Princess Diana poses for a photo at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, England, July 18, 1986.
Tim Graham/Getty Images

Diana died in 1997 at age 36 with her Egyptian boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed, while they were chased by paparazzi after leaving a Parisian restaurant.

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