The July Column (french: Colonne de Juillet) is a monumental column in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

commemorating the Revolution of 1830. It stands in the center of the

Place de la Bastille The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison once stood, until the storming of the Bastille and its subsequent physical destruction between 14 July 1789 and 14 July 1790 during the French Revolution. No vestige of the ...

and celebrates the — the 'three glorious' days of 27–29 July 1830 that saw the fall of Charles X, King of France, and the commencement of the "July Monarchy" of Louis-Philippe, King of the French. It was built between 1835 and 1840.

History

A first project for one commemorative column, one that would commemorate the

Fall of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille (french: Prise de la Bastille ) occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, when revolutionary insurgents stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At ...

, had been envisaged in 1792, and a foundation stone was laid, 14 July 1792; but the project never got further than that. The circular basin in which its socle stands was realised during the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

as part of the

Elephant of the Bastille The Elephant of the Bastille was a monument in Paris which existed between 1813 and 1846. Originally conceived in 1808 by Napoléon I, the colossal statue was intended to be created out of bronze and placed in the Place de la Bastille, but only ...

, a fountain with an elephant in its centre. The elephant was completed to designs by

Percier and Fontaine Percier and Fontaine was a noted partnership between French architects Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine. History Together, Percier and Fontaine were inventors and major proponents of the rich and grand, consciously archaeol ...

in semi-permanent stucco, but the permanent bronze sculpture was never commissioned due to pinched finances in the latter days of the Empire. Its low base has been retained to support the socle of the column. The monument, in an elaboration of a Corinthian column, was designed by the architect Jean-Antoine Alavoine, following a commission from Louis-Philippe: the Place de la Bastille was officially selected as the site on 9 March 1831, and the Citizen-King placed a first stone on 28 July 1831, the anniversary of the revolution that brought him to power; a hymn with words by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

and music by

Ferdinand Hérold Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold (28 January 1791 – 19 January 1833), better known as Ferdinand Hérold (), was a French composer. He was celebrated in his lifetime for his operas, of which he composed more than twenty, but he also wrote ballet mus ...

was sung at the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...

on the occasion. The ''Colonne de Juillet'' was constructed by Alavoine's partner in the project,

Joseph-Louis Duc Joseph-Louis Duc () (25 October 1802 – 22 January 1879) was a French architect. Duc came to prominence early, with his very well received work at the July Column in Paris, and spent much of the rest of his career on a single building complex, ...

. It was inaugurated 28 July 1840. Music composed for the occasion was Hector Berlioz' '' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale'', which was performed in the open air under the direction of Berlioz himself, leading the procession of musicians which ended at the Place de la Bastille. Jean-Pierre Montagny issued commemorative medals on the occasion. In the foundation, a

columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "''colu ...

was arranged to receive the remains of 615 victims of the July Revolution. A further 200 victims of the

Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...

were later interred in the space; the throne of Louis-Philippe was symbolically burned in the square, in July 1848.

Description

The ''Colonne de Juillet'' is composed of twenty-one cast bronze drums, weighing over ; it is high, containing an interior spiral staircase, and rests on a base of white marble ornamented with bronze bas-reliefs, of which the lion by

Antoine-Louis Barye Antoine-Louis Barye (24 September 179525 June 1875) was a Romantic French sculptor most famous for his work as an ''animalier'', a sculptor of animals. His son and student was the known sculptor Alfred Barye. Biography Born in Paris, France, Ba ...

is the most noted. The

roosters The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

at the corners are also by Barye. The column is engraved in

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

with the names of those who died during the July 1830 revolution. Over the Corinthian capital is a gallery wide, surmounted with a gilded globe, on which stands a colossal gilded figure, Augustin's ''Génie de la Liberté'' (the "Spirit of Freedom"). Perched on one foot in the manner of Giambologna's ''Mercury'', the star-crowned nude brandishes the torch of civilisation and the remains of his broken chains. Formerly, the figure also appeared on French ten-

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

coins.

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

, in ''

Sentimental Education ''Sentimental Education'' (French: ''L'Éducation sentimentale'', 1869) is a novel by Gustave Flaubert. Considered one of the most influential novels of the 19th century, it was praised by contemporaries such as George Sand and Émile Zola, but ...

'', compares the statue to a large golden star shining in the east.Flaubert, ''L'éducation sentimentale,'' Gallimard, Paris, 1965 p.84

References

External links

{{commons category, Colonne de Juillet
Official website

Génie de la Liberté
( Webshots user photo - links to bigger version) Buildings and structures completed in 1840 Monuments and memorials in Paris Place de la Bastille Monumental columns in France Terminating vistas in Paris 1840 sculptures Bronze sculptures in France Statues in France

History

Description

See also

References

External links