Description
The Arc de Triomphe is the great triumphal arch at the western end of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. It stands almost 50 meters high, 45 wide and 22 deep, and honors those who fought for France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Until 1938 it was the tallest triumphal arch in the world.
It sits at the center of the Étoile, the "star" of twelve avenues. From the rooftop terrace, reached by 284 steps (the first 240 spiral), the avenues fan out below, and the Champs-Élysées runs straight down to the Concorde. A small museum fills the attic, and lifts help those who cannot climb.
On the pillars of the base stand four sculpted groups. The most famous is La Marseillaise by François Rude: the volunteers of 1792 led by a winged Liberty. The others are Cortot's Triumph of 1810 and Étex's Resistance of 1814 and Peace of 1815.
The arch is also a list. Thirty shields in the attic carry the names of major French victories, 158 battles are inscribed, and the names of 660 officers fill the inner walls: those killed in battle are underlined.
Under the vault lies the Unknown Soldier of World War I, buried on Armistice Day 1920, with an eternal flame over the slab. The soldier was meant for the Panthéon, but a campaign of letters from the public brought him here.
Napoleon ordered the arch in 1806, after his victory at Austerlitz, at the height of his glory. He never saw it finished. When he rode into the city in 1810 with his new bride, Marie-Louise of Austria, only the foundations were ready: so he had a full-size wooden mock-up put up.
Then the Empire fell, the Bourbons halted the works, and the arch was completed only in 1836, under King Louis Philippe. Its model was Rome's Arch of Titus, blown up to almost 50 meters.
Armies marched beneath it in victory: the Germans in 1871 and 1940, the French and their allies in 1919 and 1944. Since the 1920s the parades go around it instead. Even Hitler kept the custom. The arch also anchors the historic axis that runs from the Louvre to the Grande Arche of La Défense.
Don't miss
• La Marseillaise by François Rude.
• The Unknown Soldier and the flame.
• The rooftop terrace.
Did you know?
• The story goes that on the day the Battle of Verdun began, the sword of La Marseillaise broke off. It was quickly hidden under tarpaulins.
• In 1919 the pilot Charles Godefroy flew his biplane through the arch.
• Jacqueline Kennedy asked for an eternal flame on her husband's grave remembering this one.
It sits at the center of the Étoile, the "star" of twelve avenues. From the rooftop terrace, reached by 284 steps (the first 240 spiral), the avenues fan out below, and the Champs-Élysées runs straight down to the Concorde. A small museum fills the attic, and lifts help those who cannot climb.
On the pillars of the base stand four sculpted groups. The most famous is La Marseillaise by François Rude: the volunteers of 1792 led by a winged Liberty. The others are Cortot's Triumph of 1810 and Étex's Resistance of 1814 and Peace of 1815.
The arch is also a list. Thirty shields in the attic carry the names of major French victories, 158 battles are inscribed, and the names of 660 officers fill the inner walls: those killed in battle are underlined.
Under the vault lies the Unknown Soldier of World War I, buried on Armistice Day 1920, with an eternal flame over the slab. The soldier was meant for the Panthéon, but a campaign of letters from the public brought him here.
Napoleon ordered the arch in 1806, after his victory at Austerlitz, at the height of his glory. He never saw it finished. When he rode into the city in 1810 with his new bride, Marie-Louise of Austria, only the foundations were ready: so he had a full-size wooden mock-up put up.
Then the Empire fell, the Bourbons halted the works, and the arch was completed only in 1836, under King Louis Philippe. Its model was Rome's Arch of Titus, blown up to almost 50 meters.
Armies marched beneath it in victory: the Germans in 1871 and 1940, the French and their allies in 1919 and 1944. Since the 1920s the parades go around it instead. Even Hitler kept the custom. The arch also anchors the historic axis that runs from the Louvre to the Grande Arche of La Défense.
Don't miss
• La Marseillaise by François Rude.
• The Unknown Soldier and the flame.
• The rooftop terrace.
Did you know?
• The story goes that on the day the Battle of Verdun began, the sword of La Marseillaise broke off. It was quickly hidden under tarpaulins.
• In 1919 the pilot Charles Godefroy flew his biplane through the arch.
• Jacqueline Kennedy asked for an eternal flame on her husband's grave remembering this one.