Stalingrad Fountain, Fountain in the 19th arrondissement, Paris, France
The Fontaine de Stalingrad is a fountain on the Place de la Bataille de Stalingrad in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, close to the Canal de l'Ourcq. It consists of a stone basin topped with a bronze sculpture, set in an open public square.
The sculpture was placed on the square in 1989 and was made by Georges Jeanclos, a French sculptor born in 1933 who died in 1997. The square itself received its current name in 1993, in memory of the Battle of Stalingrad, a turning point in World War II.
The Fontaine de Stalingrad is also known as the Fontaine Jeanclos, after the artist who made it. The bronze figure on the fountain is not a religious deity but one of Jeanclos's recurring 'Sleepers', a type of figure he created to express gentleness and calm.
The fountain sits on a busy square that is easy to reach on foot and close to a metro station. Visiting during the day is a good idea, as the square tends to be more open and easier to move around in than in the evening.
At the base of the sculpture, you can see carved representations of the thousand breasts of Artemis of Ephesus, a figure from Greek mythology. This detail is easy to miss but connects the themes of life and fertility to the water flowing from the fountain.
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