About La Défense de Paris
Urban Environment, Cultural, Interesting Places, Sculptures
La Défense de Paris is a bronze statue by French sculpture Louis-Ernest Barrias. It commemorates the French dead from the Siege of Paris in 1870–71, during the Franco-Prussian War. The sculpture group was unveiled to the west of Paris on 12 October 1883, erected on an existing plinth that had previously supported a sculpture of Napoleon by Charles Émile Seurre, beside the crossroads between Courbevoie and Puteaux. The location became the La Défense roundabout, but was later removed. Its surroundings area were subsumed into Paris as the city expanded later in the 19th and into the 20th century; the area became known as La Défense after the statue. The statue was removed to a new location in c.1965, and subsequently moved several times. It was unveiled at a new location near the Arche de la Défense in 2017.
