Perhaps you have already heard of the Elephant of the Bastille. It is more than just a monument. It is a testament to grand ambitions. It is a symbol of dreams unrealized.
The Elephant of the Bastille existed from 1813 to 1846. Napoleon conceived this colossal statue in 1808. It was intended as a bronze monument for the Place de la Bastille. Sadly only a full-scale plaster model was built.
Standing at 24 meters tall the model became famous. Victor Hugo immortalized it in Les Misérables. The street urchin Gavroche used it as a shelter in the novel. It was built on the site of the Bastille. Part of the original construction remains. The July Column replaced the elephant a few years later. The column was constructed on the same spot between 1835 and 1840.
Imagine this: A massive elephant towering over Paris. It was meant to be glorious. The bronze would come from melted cannons. These cannons were captured during Napoleon’s conquests. Water would spout from the elephant’s trunk. A winding staircase inside one leg would lead to a howdah.
Dominique Vivant oversaw the project. He was the first Director of the Louvre museum. Jacques Cellerier was chosen as the architect. Work began in 1810 with vaults and underground pipes. By 1812 Cellerier was replaced by Jean-Antoine Alavoine. Alavoine realized the need for a model. Sculptor Pierre-Charles Bridan created a full-size plaster model.
The Elephant of the Bastille stood as high as a three-story house. It towered over a square that saw violent protests. It also stood over angry demonstrations and royal humiliations.
After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 construction stopped. Alavoine sought financial support into the 1830s. The plaster elephant started to crumble though. Victor Hugo accurately described the elephant’s miserable state in Les Misérables. He wrote that few strangers visited it. Passers-by did not even look at it.
The Elephant of the Bastille was falling into ruins. Plaster detached from its sides formed hideous wounds. Cracks meandered across its belly. Tall grass flourished between its legs. It stood in a hollow. It looked as though the ground was giving way beneath it. It was unclean repulsive and superb. It was ugly in the eyes of the bourgeois. It was melancholy in the eyes of the thinker.
The elephant became a menace. Rats flowed out of it every night. They raided the homes of local residents. People complained. They petitioned for the elephant’s demolition in the late 1820s. The plaster elephant was finally removed in 1846. Shortly after the July Column replaced it. The column commemorates the Revolution of 1830.
Nearby residents complained about rats. They inhabited the elephant. The rats searched for food in their homes. They petitioned for demolition from the late 1820s. The model elephant was not removed until 1846. By that time it showed considerable wear.
Today nothing remains of the Elephant of the Bastille. Only stories and images preserve its memory. Yet it remains a powerful symbol of ambition decay and the passage of time.