Is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the place Charles de Gaulle, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. It should not be cunfused with a smalleer arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrrousel, which stands west of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe("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.
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Arc de Triomphe at night
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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.
History
It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortune. 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 moch-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. Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc during the night of 22 May 1885.
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| Austerlitz war |
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. On 7 August 1919, Charles godefroy successfully flew his biplane under the Arc. 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.
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| Charles Godefroy flies his biplane through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on August 7th. |
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 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 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.
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| Bastille Day July 14 Military Parade La Patrouille de-France above Arc de Triomphe |
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| France military parade bastille day, 15 July 2011 |
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| The Liberation of Paris, France Aug. 29, 1944 |
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| American troops march down the Champs Elysees , Paris, in the “Victory Parade.” 29 August 1944. |
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| Germany's armed forces marched down the Champs-Élysées in Paris 1940. |
By the early 1960's, the monument had grown very blackened from coal soot and automobile exhaust, and during 1965-66 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 I'Étoile, the Grande Arche is the third arch built on the same perspective. In 1995, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria placed a bomb near the Arc which wounded 17 people as part of a campaing of bombings.
Size
The monument stands 164 ft(50 metres) in height, 148 ft(45 m) wide and 72 ft(22 m) deep. The large vault is 95.8 ft(29.19 m) high and 48 ft(14.62 m) wide, The small vault is 61.3 ft (18.68 m) high and 27.7 ft(8.44 m) wide. Its design was inspirated by the Roman Arch of Titus. The arc de Triomphe is built on such a large scale thath, three weeks after the paris victory parade in 1919 (marking the end of hostilities in World War I).
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. Interred on Armistice Day 1920, it has the first eternal flame lit in Western and Eastern Europe since the Vestal Virgin's fire was extinguished in the fourth century. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified.
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I |
A ceremony is held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier every 11 November on the anniversary of the armistice signed by the Entente Powers 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 the 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 bears 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").
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| Eternal Flame under Arc de Triomphe |
Details
The four main sculptural groups on each of the Arc's pillars are:
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