3-043-861 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ruins of Paris: the Place de la Concorde, 1871. The last of the Paris Commune: '...ruins of public buildings, destroyed by the fury of the Communist faction... a scene of havoc and dire confusion was beheld...on the Place de la Concorde, at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, where the remains of a great barricade, abutting on the wall of the Tuileries Gardens, were still to be seen. The front wall of the Ministry of Finance, in the Rue de Rivoli, had fallen in the conflagration, and the fire was not quite extinguished when our Artist made his sketch. In the foreground was the pedestal of one of the statues of female figures designed to represent the chief cities of France: this was Lille, which had been completely smashed by cannonballs or shells. The stone basin of the large bronze fountain had been sadly damaged; the ornamental pillars and lamp-posts of metal were bent or broken; the place was littered with heaps of stone, sacks of earth, empty barrels, splinters of shells, soldiers' knapsacks, caps, uniforms, ramrods, bayonets, bottles, tin cans, and half-burnt papers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.