Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Arc de Triomphe

Charles Percier (French architect, 1764-1838)

Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (French architect, 1762-1853)

Paris, Île-de-France, France

1806-1807 (creation)

19th century

Empire

Nineteenth century

French

built works

monuments

built works

monuments

triumphal arches (memorial arches)

stone

carving (processes)

construction

63 x 75 x 24 ft (depth)

Architecture and City Planning

View of arch looking down primary axis toward the Louvre Palace and I.M. Pei's Louvre Pyramid

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is a triumphal arch in Paris, France. It is located on the Place du Carrousel, just to the west of the Louvre. Designed by Charles Percier and Pierre Léonard Fontaine, the arch was made between 1806-1808 by the Emperor Napoleon I on the model of the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome. It was commissioned to commemorate France's military victories in 1805. It was originally surmounted by the famous horses of Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice, captured by Napoleon, but these were returned to Venice in 1815. They were replaced by a quadriga sculpted by Baron François Joseph Bosio, depicting Peace riding in a triumphal chariot, led by gilded Victories on either side

the composition commemorates the Restoration of the Bourbons following Napoleon's downfall. The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is at the easternmost end of the so-called "Axe historique" ("grand historic axis") of Paris, a nine-kilometre long linear route which dominates central and western Paris created under the (later) city planning of Baron Haussmann. Looking west towards , the arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe and (although it is not directly visible from the Place du Carrousel) the Grande Arche de la Defense. The axis thus begins and ends with an arch today.

© Javier Gomez

GOMEZAT3328

Javier Gomez

35 mm slides