History
A first project for a commemorative column, one that would commemorate the Fall of the Bastille, had been envisaged in 1792, and a foundation stone was laid, 14 July 1792; the project never got further than that. The circular basin in which its socle stands was realised during the Empire as part of the Elephant of the Bastille, a fountain with an elephant in its centre. The elephant was completed to designs by Percier and Fontaine 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.
In the foundation, a columbarium was arranged to receive the remains of 615 victims of the July Revolution. A further 200 victims of the Revolution of 1848 were later interred in the space; the throne of Charles X was symbolically burned in the square, February 1848.
The column was the scene of the last desperate stand of the Communards in 1871.
Read more about this topic: July Column
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“These anyway might think it was important
That human history should not be shortened.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)