3-039-229 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scaffolding for sawing the base of the column in the Place Vendôme, Paris, 1871. Illustration of '...the wilful destruction of this famous monument of French military glory by the Red Republican faction of the Commune...The fine Doric column...is familiar to all who have visited Paris. It was 132 ft. 3 in. high, built of stone and brick, hollow, with a spiral staircase inside of 176 steps. Its construction was ordered by Napoleon I. to commemorate the French victories in Germany, especially the Battle of Austerlitz, in 1805... The rage of the Communist Dictators against everything that belonged to the Bonapartes has been gratified by the destruction of this monument. Our Illustrations show the manner in which the silly task has been effected, by first sawing through the base of the shaft, a little above the pedestal, and cutting out a huge notch on the north side, and then pulling the column to the ground on that side by several ropes stretched from its summit to the right and left sides of the street...There was a scaffolding around the shaft, covered from view by a curtain of green calico, for the convenience of the workmen employed to saw through the column'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.