Good old Napo: the other triomphal arch made by the little Corsican

We are in front of the finest instance of the Imperial style! It was raised between 1806 and 1808 by Percier and Fontaine: those architects were inspired by Septimius Severus' arc in Rome.

At the beginning, this arc used to be at Tuileries castle's entrance. It has 8 Corinthian columns made of red and white marble, crowned by statues representing Napoleon Great Army's soldiers.

Originally, they wanted to put a statue of the emperor in a chariot, at the top of the arch... but Napoleon wasn't agree! So they put instead an effigy of the Restoration.