The Arc de Triomphe from the Place Charles de Gaulle
The
Arc de Triomphe (
Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile) is one of the most famous monuments in
Paris. It stands in the centre of the
Place Charles de Gaulle (originally named
Place de l'Étoile), at the western end of the
Champs-Élysées.
[3] There is a smaller arch, the
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which stands west of the
Louvre. The
Arc de Triomphe (in English: "
Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the
French Revolutionary and the
Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.
The
Arc de Triomphe is the linchpin of the historic axis (
Axe historique) – a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre, to the
Grande Arche de la Défense. The monument was designed by
Jean Chalgrin in 1806, and its
iconographic program pitted
heroically nude French youths against bearded
Germanic warriors in
chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments, with triumphant patriotic messages.
The monument stands 50 metres (164 ft) in height, 45 m (148 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. The large vault is 29.19 m (95.8 ft) high and 14.62 m (48.0 ft) wide. The small vault is 18.68 m (61.3 ft) high and 8.44 m (27.7 ft) wide. It was the largest
triumphal arch in existence until the construction of the
Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, in 1982.
[4] Its design was inspired by the Roman
Arch of Titus. The
Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, (marking the end of hostilities in World War I),
Charles Godefroy flew his
Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel.
[5][6][7]
History
The Arc is located on the right bank of the
Seine at the centre of a dodecagonal configuration of twelve radiating avenues. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at
Austerlitz by
Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years and, in 1810, when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess
Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed. The architect,
Jean Chalgrin, died in 1811 and the work was taken over by
Jean-Nicolas Huyot. During the
Bourbon Restoration, construction was halted and it would not be completed until the reign of
King Louis-Philippe, between 1833 and 1836, by the architects Goust, then Huyot, under the direction of
Héricart de Thury. On 15 December 1840, brought back to France from
Saint Helena, Napoleon's remains passed under it on their way to the Emperor's final resting place at the
Invalides.
[8] Prior to burial in the
Panthéon, the body of
Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc during the night of 22 May 1885.
The sword carried by the
Republic in the
Marseillaise relief broke off on the day, it is said, that the
Battle of Verdun began in 1916. The relief was immediately hidden by
tarpaulins to conceal the accident and avoid any undesired ominous interpretations
[citation needed]. On 7 August 1919,
Charles Godefroy successfully flew his biplane under the Arc.
[9] Jean Navarre was the pilot who was tasked to make the flight, but he died on 10 July 1919 when he crashed near
Villacoublay while training for the flight.
Following its construction, the
Arc de Triomphe became the rallying point of French troops parading after successful military campaigns and for the annual
Bastille Day Military Parade. Famous victory marches around or under the Arc have included the
Germans in 1871, the French in 1919, the
Germans in 1940, and the
French and Allies in 1944
[10] and 1945. A United States
postage stamp of 1945 shows the
Arc de Triomphe in the background as victorious American troops march down the Champs-Élysées and U.S. airplanes fly overhead on 29 August 1944. After the interment of the Unknown Soldier, however, all military parades (including the aforementioned post-1919) have avoided marching through the actual arch. The route taken is up to the arch and then around its side, out of respect for the tomb and its symbolism. Both
Hitler in 1940 and de Gaulle in 1944 observed this custom.
By the early 1960s, the monument had grown very blackened from coal soot and automobile exhaust, and during 1965–1966 it was cleaned through
bleaching.
In the prolongation of the
Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a new arch, the
Grande Arche de la Défense, was built in 1982, completing the line of monuments that forms Paris's
Axe historique. After the
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the
Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, the
Grande Arche is the third arch built on the same perspective.
| Arc de Triomphe through history |
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The design
The
astylar design is by
Jean Chalgrin (1739–1811), in the
Neoclassical version of ancient
Roman architecture (see, for example, the triumphal
Arch of Titus). Major
academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the
Arc de Triomphe:
Jean-Pierre Cortot;
François Rude;
Antoine Étex;
James Pradier and
Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire. The main sculptures are not integral
friezes but are treated as independent trophies applied to the vast
ashlar masonry masses, not unlike the gilt-bronze
appliqués on
Empire furniture. The four sculptural groups at the base of the Arc are
The Triumph of 1810 (Cortot),
Resistance and
Peace (both by Antoine Étex) and the most renowned of them all,
Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 commonly called
La Marseillaise (François Rude). The face of the allegorical representation of France calling forth her people on this last was used as the belt buckle for the honorary rank of
Marshal of France. Since the fall of Napoleon (1815), the sculpture representing
Peace is interpreted as commemorating the
Peace of 1815.
In the attic above the richly sculptured frieze of soldiers are 30 shields engraved with the names of major
Revolutionary and
Napoleonic military victories.
[11] The inside walls of
the monument list the names of 660 people, among which are 558 French generals of the
First French Empire;
[12] the names of those who died in battle are underlined. Also inscribed, on the shorter sides of the four supporting columns, are the names of the major victorious battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The battles that took place in the period between the
departure of Napoleon from Elba to his final defeat at Waterloo are not included.
There was at the top of the Arc from 1882 to 1886, a monumental sculpture by
Alexandre Falguière, "Le triomphe de la Révolution" (the Triumph of the Revolution), a chariot drawn by horses preparing "to crush Anarchy and Despotism", that remained only four years up there before falling in ruins.
Inside the monument, a new permanent exhibition conceived by the artist
Maurice Benayoun and the architect Christophe Girault opened in February 2007.
[13] The steel and new media installation interrogates the symbolism of the national monument, questioning the balance of its symbolic message during the last two centuries, oscillating between war and peace.
The Unknown Soldier
Beneath the Arc is the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from
World War I. Interred here on
Armistice Day 1920,
[14] it has the first
eternal flame lit in Western and Eastern Europe since the
Vestal Virgins' fire was extinguished in the fourth century. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified (now in both world wars). According to a 2008 television programme, presented by
Griff Rhys Jones, “the flame has only been extinguished once, by a drunken
Mexican football supporter on the night that
France beat
Brazil here in Paris,”
[15] most likely referring to the
1998 FIFA World Cup Final.
A ceremony is held Tomb of the Unknown Soldier every 11 November on the anniversary of the
armistice signed between France and Germany in 1918. It was originally decided on 12 November 1919 to bury the unknown soldier's remains in the
Panthéon, but a public letter-writing campaign led to the decision to bury him beneath the Arc de Triomphe. The coffin was put in the chapel on the first floor of the Arc on 10 November 1920, and put in its final resting place on 28 January 1921. The slab on top carries the inscription
ICI REPOSE UN SOLDAT FRANÇAIS MORT POUR LA PATRIE 1914–1918 ("Here lies a French soldier who died for the fatherland 1914–1918").
In 1961, President
John F. Kennedy and First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy of the United States paid their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, accompanied by French President
Charles de Gaulle. After the 1963
assassination of President Kennedy, Mrs Kennedy remembered the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe and requested that an eternal flame be placed next to her husband's grave at
Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. President Charles de Gaulle went to Washington to attend the state funeral, and witnessed Jacqueline Kennedy lighting the eternal flame that had been inspired by her visit to France.
Details
- The four main sculptures of the monument are:
-
- Les funérailles du général Marceau (General Marceau's burial), by P. H. Lamaire (SOUTH façade, right),
- La bataille d'Aboukir (The Battle of Aboukir), by Bernard Seurre (SOUTH façade, left),
- La bataille de Jemappes (The Battle of Jemappes), by Carlo Marochetti (EAST façade),
- Le passage du pont d'Arcole (The Battle of Arcole), by J. J. Feuchère (NORTH façade, right),
- La prise d'Alexandrie, (The Fall of Alexandria), by J. E. Chaponnière (NORTH façade, left),
- La bataille d'Austerlitz (The Battle of Austerlitz), by J. F. T. Gechter (WEST façade),
- Some great battles of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars are engraved on the attic, including
- A list of French victories is engraved under the great arches on the inside façades of the monument.
- The great arcades are decorated with allegorical figures representing characters in Roman mythology (by J. Pradier).
Access
The
Arc de Triomphe is accessible by the
RER and
Métro, with exit at the
Charles de Gaulle—Étoile station.
Because of heavy traffic on the roundabout of which the Arc is the centre, it is recommended that pedestrians use one of two underpasses located at the
Champs Élysées and the
Avenue de la Grande Armée.
A lift will take visitors almost to the top – to the attic, where there is a small museum which contains large models of the Arc and tells its story from the time of its construction. 46 steps remain to climb in order to reach the top, the
terrasse, from where one can enjoy a panoramic view of Paris.
Panorama of Paris from the top of the
Arc de Triomphe
See also
References
- ^ Raymond, Gino (2008-10-30). Historical dictionary of France. Scarecrow Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8108-5095-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=JVIRzOWyqUAC&pg=PA9. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
- ^ Fleischmann, Hector (1914). An unknown son of Napoleon. John Lane company. p. 204. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZnVAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA204. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
- ^ The étoile ("star") is formed by twelve radiating avenues.
- ^ North Korea built a slightly larger Arch of Triumph in 1982 for the 70th birthday of Kim Il-Sung.
- ^ Melville Wallace, La vie d'un pilote de chasse en 1914–1918, Flammarion, Paris, 1978. The film clip is included in The History Channel's Four Years of Thunder.
- ^ This film is thought still to be subject to copyright.
- ^ Photograph of the first flight through the Arc
- ^ Hôtel des Invalides website
- ^ http://www.histoire-image.org/site/oeuvre/analyse.php?i=260&d=441
- ^ Image of Liberation of Paris parade
- ^ The Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro is described as a French victory, instead of the tactical draw that it actually was.
- ^ Among the generals are at least two foreign generals, Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda and originally German Nicolas Luckner.
- ^ Between War and Peace
- ^ Naour, Jean-Yves Le; Allen, Penny (2005-08-16). The Living Unknown Soldier: A Story of Grief and the Great War. Macmillan. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-8050-7937-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=3E3PRfQdBosC&pg=PA78. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
- ^ Greatest Cities of the World with Griff Rhys Jones, Modern Television 2008.
External links
Coordinates: 
48°52′26″N 2°17′42″E / 48.8738°N 2.2950°E / 48.8738; 2.2950
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Media related to Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile at Wikimedia Commons
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