The Zouave is an 1856 stone statue by French artist Georges Diebolt, which has been sited on the Pont de l'Alma in Paris since the 1850s. The statue is used as an informal flood marker for the level of the River Seine in Paris.
The Zouave is an 1856 stone statue by French artist Georges Diebolt, which has been sited on the Pont de l'Alma in Paris since the 1850s. The statue is used as an informal flood marker for the level of the River Seine in Paris.
An arch bridge over the Seine was first constructed at this location in Paris in the 1850s, connecting the Avenue George V (formerly the Avenue d'Alma) to the Quai d'Orsay and Quai Branly. The new bridge was named after the 1854 Battle of Alma in the Crimean War. The two supporting piers of the bridge in the river were decorated with military sculptures, one on each side of each pier. Each of the four sculptures depicts a French soldier from the Crimean War: a Zouave and a grenadier by Georges Diebolt, and a chasseur and an artilleryman by Auguste Arnaud.
Three of the four statues on the Pont de l'Alma were removed and relocated when the bridge was reconstructed as a wider girder bridge in the 1970s, but The Zouave was reinstalled on the new bridge, although in a somewhat lower position.
The French Zouave wears the traditional uniform based on the styles of clothing worn in North Africa in the early 1800s, with a short open-fronted jacket, sashes, and baggy trousers (sirwal) gathered above the ankle. The figure has removed its fez, and is resting on a grounded rifle. The statue is 5.2 metres (17 ft) high and weighs 8 tonnes. It is said to have been modelled on André-Louis Gody.
The Zouave statue is used as an informal flood marker in Paris: the footpaths along the embankments beside the Seine were usually closed when the level of the river reached the feet of The Zouave, and the river was unnavigable by the time it reached his thighs. At the time of the 1910 Great Flood of Paris, the floodwater reached his shoulders. The official point for measuring the level of the river is now at the Pont d'Austerlitz: before 1876 it was at Pont de la Tournelle.
The Seine is a 777-kilometre-long (483 mi) river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre. It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, 120 kilometres (75 mi) from the sea. Over 60 percent of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by large barges and most tour boats, and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the river banks in the capital city, Paris.
Île de la Cité is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the area governor for the Roman Empire. In 508, Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island. In the 12th century, it became an important religious center, the home of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the city hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu. It is also the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf.
Île Saint-Louis, eleven hectares in size, is one of two natural islands in the Seine river, in Paris, France. Île Saint-Louis is connected to the rest of Paris by four bridges to both banks of the river and to the Île de la Cité by the Pont Saint-Louis.
The Quai d'Orsay is a quay in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde. It becomes the Quai Anatole-France east of the Palais Bourbon, and the Quai Branly west of the Pont de l'Alma.
The Pont Alexandre III is a deck arch bridge that spans the Seine in Paris. It connects the Champs-Élysées quarter with those of the Invalides and Eiffel Tower. The bridge is widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in the city. It has been classified as a French monument historique since 1975.
Alma–Marceau is a station on Line 9 of the Paris Métro, named after the Pont de l'Alma and the Avenue Marceau. The station opened on 27 May 1923 with the extension of the line from Trocadéro to Saint-Augustin.
The Pont de l'Alma is a road bridge in Paris, France, across the Seine. It was named to commemorate the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War, in which the Ottoman-Franco-British alliance achieved victory over the Russian army in 1854. The bridge is also known for being the site of the car crash that caused the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.
The Pont de la Tournelle, is an arch bridge spanning the river Seine in Paris.
Viaduc d'Austerlitz is a single-deck, steel arch, rail bridge that crosses the Seine in Paris. Its usage is dedicated solely to Line 5 of the Paris Métro. It links Gare d'Austerlitz on the Rive Gauche to Quai de la Rapée on the other side of the river.
The Île Louviers is a former island in the Seine in the centre of Paris, just upstream of the present Île Saint-Louis and of a similar size. Never built up, it was connected with the north bank of the river in 1843. Just before it ceased to be an island it had a surface area of 33,638m². In modern Paris the former island lies between the quai Henri IV and the boulevard Morland.
The Pont Notre-Dame is a bridge that crosses the Seine in Paris, France linking the quai de Gesvres on the Rive Droite with the quai de la Corse on the Île de la Cité. The bridge is noted for being the "most ancient" in Paris, in the sense that, while the oldest bridge in Paris that is in its original state is undoubtedly the Pont Neuf, a bridge in some form has existed at the site of the Pont Notre-Dame since antiquity; nonetheless, it has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times, a fact referred to in the Latin inscription on it to honor its Italian architect, Fra Giovanni Giocondo. The bridge once was lined with approximately sixty houses, the weight of which caused a collapse in 1499.
The Petit Pont is an arch bridge crossing the River Seine in Paris, built in 1853, although a structure has crossed the river at this point since antiquity. The present bridge is a single stone arch linking the 4th arrondissement and the Île de la Cité, with the 5th arrondissement, between quai de Montebello and quai Saint-Michel. The Petit Pont is notable for having been destroyed at least thirteen times since its original inception during Gallo-Roman times to the mid-19th century.
The passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, formerly known as passerelle Solférino, is a footbridge over the River Seine in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is served by the Metro station Assemblée Nationale.
The Pont de la Concorde is an arch bridge across the Seine in Paris connecting the Quai des Tuileries at the Place de la Concorde and the Quai d'Orsay. It has formerly been known as the "Pont Louis XVI", "Pont de la Révolution", "Pont de la Concorde", "Pont Louis XVI" again during the Bourbon Restoration (1814); in 1830, its name was changed again to Pont de la Concorde, the name it has retained to this day. It is served by the Metro stations Assemblée nationale and Concorde.
Charles Auguste Arnaud, known as Auguste Arnaud was a French sculptor.
The redoute de Gravelle is a fort in Joinville-le-Pont, situated to the south-east of Vincennes in Paris. Built under Louis-Philippe, from 1968 it housed the École nationale de police de Paris (ENPP), before becoming an illegal immigrants detention centre. Its south face is decorated with Auguste Arnaud's statue of a skirmisher, formerly placed next to one of a zouave on the old pont de l'Alma, but moved to its present position after the construction of the A4 autoroute in 1973. The statue is visible from the A4.
Georges Diebolt, sometimes spelled Diébolt, was a French sculptor best known for his publicly commissioned monumental works, including The Zouave and Grenadier on the pont de l'Alma in Paris and the Maritime Victory on the Pont des Invalides.
The Château de la Tournelle was a now-demolished castle on the left bank of the Seine in the 5th arrondissement of Paris on the quai de la Tournelle. The approximate site is now occupied by the restaurant La Tour d'Argent. After it were named the pont de la Tournelle and the quai de la Tournelle.
The Promenade des Berges de la Seine is a public park and promenade located along the left bank of the Seine river in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, between the Pont de l'Alma and the Musée d'Orsay. The promenade, created on the former highway that ran along the left bank, includes five floating gardens, planted atop barges, plus exhibition areas, performance and classroom spaces, playgrounds, sports facilities and cafes. Begun in 2008, it was opened by Mayor Bertrand Delanoë on June 19, 2013. Everything in the park can be dismantled and moved within 24 hours if the water of the river rises too high.