2-970-258 - /Heritage Images

Triumphal Arch at the Victoria-Avenue, Place de l'Hotel de Ville - from a photograph by Richebourg, 1856. Paris celebrates the birth of Prince Louis Napoleon: '...the beautifully artistic scene of the Triumphal Arch...This was the most striking novelty of the Fete. [There]...were two imitative buildings, in appearance as large as the Hotel de Ville itself, and to the eye, when viewed from the terrace made on purpose to see them from, they appeared as solid. This terrace, richly carpeted, was visited by almost all the company in the course of the evening. The French people were mightily tickled at this improvised city, representing the Place de l'Hotel de Ville as it will be when it is finished...St. Jacques La Boucherie was illuminated; and beyond the arch which unites the two card-houses a large extempore garden, illuminated, was seen in perspective'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.