With the eyes of the world on Paris for the Olympics, we’re looking at one of the city’s lesser-known monuments – Paris’ very own Statue of Liberty.
Paris is hardly lacking in iconic landmarks. From the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre museum and the city’s pièce de résistance, the Eiffel Tower. Yet among these storied structures, hidden in the middle of the River Seine, is a figure more associated with another city.
The smaller replica of the famous New York statue stands on the southern tip of Île aux Cygnes, an artificial island created on the Seine in 1827. Île aux Cygnes was made to help direct river traffic away from the port of Grenelle, and is now the third largest island in the city. It is traversed by three bridges – the rail bridge Pont Rouelle, and Pont de Grenelle and Pont de Bir-Hakeim. A walkway around the island provides views of the center of the city, and takes you past the Parisian Statue of Liberty.
The statue was a gift from the American community in Paris. It was given in 1889, to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution. This was only three years after the Statue of Liberty arrived and was finally erected in New York, itself a gift from the French people, commemorating America’s revolution.
Paris’ Lady Liberty was inaugurated on the island on America’s July 4th, rather than France’s Bastille Day. The tablet on this version has the dates of both the French Revolution and American Independence – July 14, 1789, and July 4, 1776.
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The replica on Île aux Cygnes is not the only replica in Paris. There are others at the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée des Arts et Métiers. The one visible on the Seine, however, was one of the original models used while the full-sized statue was constructed in Paris.
From New York in Paris to the Eiffel Tower in… China? Check out our Great Big Story below!
