Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Arc de triomphe de l’Étoile in Paris

The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is an ancient-style architectural monument and one of the recognizable symbols of the French capital. The monument was built in the 19th century to honor the victory of Napoleon’s troops at the Battle of Austerlitz.

Video: Arc de Triomphe in Paris

• Highlights
• Construction of the Arc de Triomphe
• Historical events near the arch
• Sculptural decoration
• The Arc de Triomphe today
• How to get there

Highlights

The size of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is impressive and emphasizes its grandeur. The architectural structure rises 49.5 meters, has a width of 44.8 meters and a vault height of over 29 meters. Although more than 180 years have passed since its construction, the arch in the French capital remains the largest of all the Triumphal Arches in the world.

The famous monument stands in the historic center of the city, in the square named after Charles de Gaulle. From this place, 12 avenues run in different directions, the most famous of which is called “Champs Elysees”. The Arc de Triomphe is visible from all sides, and many French and foreign tourists visit it all year round. The square around the monument can be considered a real place of pilgrimage, as almost all tours of Paris are routed past it.

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Through the Arc de Triomphe leads the “Triumphal Route”, also called the “Royal Perspective”. It is a series of buildings and historical monuments stretched along a single axis. It starts from the Louvre, continues through the Tuileries Gardens to Place de la Concorde, and then through the Elysée Gardens to the Arch. Here the “Triumphal Route” does not end. It goes even further from the city center – through the Boulevard of the Grande Armée to the Grande Arche de Défense. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris lies in the middle of the “Royal Perspective”, and therefore from it you can perfectly see both the buildings of the historic city center and the ultra-modern high-rises of the Defence.

Construction of the Arc de Triomphe

In 1805, the army led by Napoleon won the “battle of the three emperors” at Austerlitz. The emperor very much wanted to immortalize the triumph of his soldiers, and ordered the construction of the Arc de Triomphe in the center of Paris.

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Architects prepared several projects for the monument. According to one of them, the monument was planned to be made in the form of a huge elephant, in which a museum would be arranged, telling about the victories of the French troops. However, the emperor’s attention was attracted by the project of Jean-François Chalgren, the court architect of Napoleon I, who chose as the prototype of the Paris monument the famous one-span Arch of Titus in Rome.

The ancient monument appeared during the reign of the Roman Emperor Domitian, in 81 AD. The Arch of Titus stood on the ancient Sacred Road, on the southeast side of the Roman Forum. The laconic, beautiful monument served as a prototype for many of the Triumphal Arches built in Modern times.

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Like the Roman arch, the monument in the French capital was planned to be made with one expressive span and powerful supports. At Napoleon’s behest, Schalgren designed a French arch three times the size of the ancient Arch of Titus. The next year, work began on the construction of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. And five years later, the elderly author of the monument died. This happened at a time when the arch in height was not completed by only 5 meters.

The erection of the Arc de Triomphe stretched for a long three decades because of a series of military defeats of France. In 1806-1807 years under the massive monument set the foundation. In 1810 the Emperor’s bride Maria Luisa of Austria came to the French capital. In honor of her visit, the wooden scaffolding of the monument under construction was decorated with a stark canvas depicting the finished arch. So Napoleon could see his dream in the form of a large life-size model. It was up to the architect Abel Blouet to complete the construction work. In 1836, when the Arc de Triomphe was finally built, the emperor who conceived it was no longer alive.

Historical events near the arch

In 1840, Louis-Philippe I, the ruler of France, to please the Bonapartists, transported Emperor Napoleon’s ashes to his homeland from the place where he spent the last years of his life. The remains were taken from the remote island of St. Helena, placed on a pompously decorated funeral cortege and carried with honors under the arches of the majestic Arc de Triomphe. To-day Napoleon’s ashes are in the building of the House of Invalides (Rue de Babylone, 70).

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Since then, solemn funerals through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris have become a state tradition. The funeral corteges of the famous writer Victor Hugo, politicians Louis Adolphe Thiers, Lazare-Hippolyte Carnot, Patrice de Mac Magon and Léon Michel Gambetta, army generals Ferdinand Foch, Joseph Joffre and Philippe Leclerc, and Marshal Jean de Latre de Tassigny passed under the famous monument.

In 1921, the remains of the Unknown Soldier, who gave his life in the recent war, were moved under the Paris monument. And two years later, the Eternal Flame was erected here as a symbol of remembrance of all the inhabitants of France who did not return from the fields of World War I.

Sculptural decoration

The solemnity of the Arc de Triomphe is determined not only by its large size, but also by its elaborate decoration – ornaments, bas-reliefs and sculptures. Two sculptural compositions are facing the city center (Champs Elysees). On the right is a dynamic work by French master François Rude. It is dedicated to the performance of volunteers against the Prussian army, which entered Lorraine in 1792, and is called “Marseillaise”. On the left side, the arch is decorated with a sculptural group by Jean-Pierre Cortot. It is called “Triumph of 1815”. In the central part of this composition, the sculptor depicted the figure of Napoleon himself.

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On the side of the Defence (Avenue de la Grande-Armée) there are two sculptures by the famous French artist Antoine Etex. On the left you can see “The Peace of 1815”, depicting the events of the Congress of Vienna. And on the right is a composition commemorating the events of the French resistance in 1814.

Above the four sculptures, as well as on the sides of the Arc de Triomphe are 6 bas-reliefs with scenes of victories won by the French. On the side of Wagram Avenue there is an image of the battle of Austerlitz (1805), where the figures of Russian soldiers can be seen. This bas-relief was created by Jean-François Théodore Gescher. And on the opposite side, a work by Carlo Marochetti is installed. The bas-relief commemorates the battle near Jemappe in Belgium, which took place between the French and Austrians in 1792.

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Visible from the city center is a bas-relief by Bernard Gabriel Serres, or Serres the Elder, in which the Ottoman commander Sayyid Mustafa Pasha is presented to Emperor Napoleon. These events took place after the French victory in the Battle of Cape Aboukir in Egypt (1799). And next to it is a bas-relief with the scene of the funeral of French General Marceau, which happened in 1796.

On the side of the monument facing the modern quarter of Défense, you can see bas-reliefs commemorating two famous battles: the Battle of Arcola in Italy (1796) and the battle for the Egyptian Kanob, which took place two years later.

In addition, on the supports of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris are written the names of 128 battles won by the French army, as well as the names of 660 military leaders. The names of those who fell in battle are crossed out. The monument is surrounded by massive granite pedestals that are connected by heavy cast iron chains. They mark the one hundred days that Napoleon ruled.

The Arc de Triomphe today

Every year on July 14, a lavish military parade ceremony is held near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Parisians and visitors lay wreaths and fresh flowers at the tomb and the Memorial Flame. The country’s president and remaining veterans take part in the celebration.