Arc De Triomphe
In 1806, Napoleon I decided to build an arch in place de l’Etoile to glorify the Grande Armée. The architect Jean-françois Chalgrin designed it and the building work was finished in 1836, under Louis-Philippe. The monument’s pedestals were ornated with four allegorical high reliefs by Cortot, Etex and particularly Rude (with his famous “Marseillaise”).
The Arc de Triomphe, a great national symbol, has been the seat of major events like the return of the Emperor’s ashes in 1840 or the burial of the Unknown Soldier in 1921. In the middle of an imaginary line going from the Louvre to the Grande Arche de la Défense, it is today a link between the old Paris and the contemporary Paris.
Arc De Triomphe
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Website: arc-de-triomphe.monuments-nationaux.fr