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Video: Where did the giant Bastille elephant, created by order of Napoleon, disappeared?
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
After the victory of the Great French Revolution, the building of the royal prison was destroyed to the ground. After unsuccessful attempts to occupy the vacated space, the city authorities did not know what to think of. The empty square did not give rest to Napoleon. He ordered to build a monumental sculpture of an elephant with a tower on its back. It was ordered to sculpt it in bronze or other strong material. So that for centuries. After all, the elephant was considered a symbol of royal power. More than anything, Bonaparte wanted to become a king, or rather, an emperor. Does not matter. He just wanted to rule.
Why elephant
The Place de la Bastille in Paris is not only a reminder of the Great French Revolution. In addition, it is the largest mass grave in the city. The bodies of many hundreds of revolutionaries who died on the barricades are buried there. The Royal Prison was dismantled stone by stone, from which the Bridge of Concord was built. For a long time, the city authorities could not figure out what to build in the vacant place.
Place de la Bastille was supposed to become a kind of symbol of freedom. It was decided to embody this in a massive column in the center. The foundation was even laid, but the column was never destined to materialize. Then a statue of the goddess Isis was installed there. It was an impressive fountain. The goddess's nipples were running water and many townspeople were unhappy with such an outrage in the central square. The obscene fountain was eventually removed.
After the First Empire was established, the empty square became annoying with its huge, empty, unoccupied space. Napoleon Bonaparte decided to do something about it. At first, it was here that they planned to install the Arc de Triomphe. At the last moment, the Emperor changed his mind. In 1810, on the site of the former prison, he ordered the construction of a monumental fountain. According to the imperial idea, it was an elephant carrying a tower on its back.
The sculpture was supposed to be a monument to the heroic victories of Napoleon. The elephant was planned to be poured out of bronze from molten cannons, which Bonaparte captured during his conquests. Napoleon had grandiose plans for this fountain - it was supposed to delight and amaze everyone who sees it.
A large-scale project that degenerated into a pitiful sight
Dominic Vivan was assigned to supervise the project. He was an artist, writer, diplomat, archaeologist, and the first director of the Louvre. Jacques Sellerier became the chief architect of the project. In the same year, work began. Within two years, the construction of the frame and all the underground work was completed. In 1812, Sellerier was succeeded by Jean-Antoine Alavuan. He decided that the work needed to be visualized in order to demonstrate the future end result. The sculptor Pierre-Charles Bridan was hired. He created a grand life-size model. Bridan put a layer of gypsum on the existing wooden frame.
As huge as a three-story house, the Bastille Elephant was a very imposing figure. It towered over the legendary square, which in its entire history has witnessed many bloody events. A stream of water poured from the elephant's trunk. From the legs of the animal, it served as a shelter for a spiral staircase, along which it was possible to climb to the top of the structure.
After Napoleon's historic defeat at Waterloo in 1815, his empire collapsed. The project was completely stopped. Architect Alavuan tried long and unsuccessfully to find sources of funding to complete the construction. He continued his attempts for almost twenty years. Meanwhile, the plaster elephant began to disintegrate inexorably.
The colossal sculpture became an extremely pitiful picture. One tusk fell off completely, the other crumbled, leaving one stump. The elephant's body turned black from rain and soot. In the huge empty cavities of his body, vagrants, rodents and flocks of stray cats found their refuge. Everything around is overgrown with dandelions and thistles. It was not at all the sight that Napoleon Bonaparte wished to see when he ordered this fountain to be erected.
The death of an elephant
The Monumental Elephant is even featured in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Miserables. There a hero named Gavroche took refuge in this wobbly thick-skinned one. Hugo very accurately described the deplorable state of the elephant:
The elephant has become more than just an eerie sight. His body was chosen by hordes of rats. Rodents got out of it every night and made cruel raids on the houses of all the surrounding residents. People were constantly complaining. They asked the city officials to take down this elephant. Only in 1846 the plaster monster was finally demolished. Soon after, the July Column was erected on this site, to commemorate the revolution of 1830. It towers above the square to this day. The elephant has become just a page in history. Not very pretty and pleasant, but what it really is.
If you are interested in history, read our article on what secrets were discovered by an ancient sculpture from the Urals, which is older than the Egyptian pyramids: the Shigir idol.
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