For much of this time it presented a sorry spectacle.
One tusk had fallen off, and the other was reduced to a powdery stump.
The plinth was overgrown by dandelions and thistles.
This was not the sight Napoleon Bonaparte had intended when he ordered the elephant built.
Elephant of the Bastille.
Watercolour by architect Jean-Antoine Alavoine.
A foundation stone was laid but the column never materialized.
But Napoleon had more grandiose plans.
The plaster model of the Elephant for the Place de la Bastille.
Engraving by artist Augustus Charles Pugin.
Photo:Wikimedia Commons
After Napoleon’s defeat in Waterloo in 1815, the empire collapsed and construction stopped.
The aediles, as the expression ran in elegant dialect, had forgotten it ever since 1814.
The people complained and petitioned for the elephant to be demolished in the late 1820.
It wasnt until 1846 that the plaster elephant was finally removed.
Shortly after, it was replaced by the July Column that was erected to commemorate the Revolution of 1830.
Elephant of the Bastille, by an unknown artist.
