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Column of la Bastille and July revolution of 1830 - A memorial and a tomb

Column of la Bastille and the Révolution of July 1830 Column of la Bastille comes after the second…

• place de la Bastille
• CLOSED
• The Bastille Column was erected after the second revolution of 1830, the first being the "Révolution of 1789". Charles X (brother of Louis XVI and Louis XVIII) tried to re-establish an authoritarian regime, by curbing the fervor of the liberal deputies with his "Saint-Cloud ordinances" of July 25, 1830. In response, Parisians rose up during battles that lasted only three days known as "the Three Glorious Days" ("lles Trois Glorieuses" - July 27, 28, and 29, 1830). Charles X and the royal family then fled Paris. The liberal deputies, mostly monarchists, took the popular revolution in hand. They finally opt for a more liberal constitutional monarchy with the help of a change of dynasty. The House of Orleans, the younger branch of the House of Bourbon (Charles X) succeeded the older branch. The Duke of Orleans is proclaimed "King of the French" and no longer "King of France", under the name of Louis-Philippe 1er. One year after the July revolution (1830), King Louis-Philippe laid the first stone of the new project on July 27, 1831. The construction lasted from 1835 to 1840. The Saint-Martin canal flows under the July column. The foundations that support the monument were built straddling the waterway. On either side of the canal, two crypts unfold in a semicircle. This is where the remains of the seven hundred victims of the revolutions of July 1830 and February 1848 were placed. On July 28, 1840, the French government, therefore, celebrated with great pomp the transfer of the bodies of the 504 revolutionaries of 1830. They had been buried for 10 years near the Louvre, in the "Jardin de l'Infante". King Louis-Philippe 1er was in turn driven from the throne in February 1848 and fled. This revolution officially left 500 to 600 victims. 196 of them from the 1848 revolution were added in one of the 2 vaults under the Bastille column. The Colonne of July is made of bronze. It weighs 179,500 kilograms. The metal part consists of a cubic pedestal that supports a 23-meter high shaft, crowned by a composite construction. It takes 240 steps to reach the top. Its height is 51 m.