Column of the Grande Armée: Difference between revisions

The Column was declared a [[monument historique]] on [[31 March]] [[1905]] and survived the First World War intact. The column and the 1841 statue were seriously damaged by bombing in 1944, with the park around the Column being turned into a German naval cemetery (with burials including that of [[Klaus Dönitz]], son of admiral [[Karl Dönitz]], in 1944). The original statue was replaced by a 4.75m high statue of Napoleon in [[chasseur]] uniform by [[Pierre Stenne]])<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15246/15246-h/15246-h.htm The Tragedy of St Helena]</ref>. The new statue and the completed restoration works were inuauguratedinaugurated on 24 June 1962, in the presence of [[Charles de Gaulle]], a troop detachment and a large crowd. The column's top was struck by lighteninglightning on 19 November 1999 (causing very severe cracks and the fall of some blocks of marble, though the statue survived) and 2002 (causing some of the stone at the top to explode), and so a restoration project is still in progress, making it presently impossible to climb the Column.