Column of the Grande Armée, Victory column in Wimille, France
The Column of the Grande Armée is a 53-metre triumphal column on Rue Napoléon in Wimille, modelled on Trajan's Column. Its pale stone shaft rises from a stepped rectangular base and is ringed near the top by a projecting circular gallery. A dark statue of Napoleon in uniform stands on the square platform at the summit.
Marshal Soult laid the first stone on 9 November 1804, funded by soldiers giving half a day's pay monthly. Work halted in 1814 at about 20 metres; it resumed in 1819, and François-Joseph Bosio's 7,500-kg Napoleon statue was hoisted on 15 August 1841. Damaged in 1944, the statue was replaced in 1962 by Pierre Stenne's figure in colonel's uniform.
The column was funded by the soldiers themselves: each month they gave up half a day's pay, officers a full day. The first stone was laid by Marshal Soult on 9 November 1804. A small museum in the right-hand pavilion at the entrance displays the original 1841 statue by François-Joseph Bosio, damaged in 1944 and replaced in 1962.
The column stands on the Rue Napoléon in Wimille, a short drive north of Boulogne-sur-Mer, with two entrance pavilions and gardens at the foot of the site. Visitors can climb to the top platform for a view over Boulogne and the coast. A small museum occupies the right-hand pavilion, where the damaged 1841 statue by Bosio is kept.
The 1841 statue by François-Joseph Bosio weighed 7,500 kilos and showed Napoleon in coronation robes; damaged in 1944, it was replaced in 1962 by Pierre Stenne's 4.75 m figure in the uniform of a colonel of the Imperial Guard. The original stands in the small museum in the right-hand pavilion at the entrance.
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