Place des Pyramides

Place des Pyramides is a square with one of the most famous monuments in Paris, the golden equestrian statue of Joan of Arc.

The square is named after the Rue des Pyramid, which ends at the square…and that street, in turn, has been named after Napoleon’s 1798 military victory in Egypt, at the Battle of the Pyramids.

The highlight of the square is the golden equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, a sculpture by Emmanuel Frémiet from 1874.

PHOTO: Joan of Arc equestrian statue at the pyramids’ square.

Location for the square of the pyramids is very central to Paris, near to, for example, the Saint-Roch church and the Louvre art museum.

The Joan of Arc sculpture was added to the square after a disastrous defeat at the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War, with the intention of supporting the public morale.

The statue was commissioned to be build by King Napoleon III (in 1874), and it quickly became a national symbol, with added significance after was canonization of Joan of Arc as a saint in 1920.

The monument’s sculptor, Fremiet, whose specialty area was animal statues, was not satisfied with the original version, however, and he specifically thought that the horse was too small in relation to the rider.

To correct this error, Fremiet designed a new, larger horse to the monument, ten years after the original had been added to the square.