Date

Circa 1910

Creator

Place Vendôme was laid out by Jules Hardouin Mansart. Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. Gondoin together with Jean-Baptiste Lepère (1761-1844), built the Vendôme Column (1806-1811), Paris, with its spiral reliefs on bronze plaques after cartoons by Pierre Nolasque Bergeret. Napoleon commissioned the original column, modelled after Trajan's Column, to celebrate the victory of Austerlitz; its veneer of 425 spiraling bas-relief bronze plates were made out of cannon taken from the combined armies of Europe, (according to his propaganda). The plates were executed by a team of sculptors including Bosio and Rude. The column was topped with a statue of Napoleon, destroyed, and then later replaced. The entire column was pulled down in 1871 and then restored and re-erected 1873.