Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme or mahJ is the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. It is located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in the Marais district in Paris; the museum conveys the rich history and culture of Jews in Europe and North Africa from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Its fine collection of religious objects, archives and works of art promotes the contributions of Jews to France and to the world in the arts; the museum's impressive collections include works of art from Amedeo Modigliani. The museum has a bookshop selling books on Jewish art and history and Judaica, a media library with an online catalogue accessible to the public, an auditorium which offers conferences, concerts and seminars, it provides guided weekly visits in English during the tourist season for individuals as well as students and teachers, workshops for children and adults. In 1985 Claude-Gérard Marcus, Victor Klagsbald, Alain Erlande-Brandenburg launched a project to create a museum of Jewish art and history in Paris, backed by the City of Paris and the ministry of Culture, represented by Jack Lang, Minister of Culture.
The project had two goals: first, to provide Paris with an ambitious museum dedicated to Judaism and second, to present national collections acquired from the reserves of the national museum of the Middle Ages. At the time, only a modest museum devoted to Judaism existed on the rue des Saules; the project was led by Laurence Sigal starting in 1988. The mayor of Paris at the time, Jacques Chirac, provided the Hotel de Saint-Aignan in the Marais as a site for the future museum; the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme opened in 1998. The decision to set up the museum in the Marais was a conscious one. Since the end of the 18th century, a large population of Jews has lived in the Marais. At first, these were immigrants from Eastern Europe, from North Africa during decolonization. Today, the Marais has been profoundly transformed: traditional shops have been replaced by trendy designer boutiques. However, the neighborhood is a cultural center for museums such as the musée Carnavalet, the musée Picasso, the Mémorial de la Shoah.
The two architects in charge of redesigning the interior of the building, Catherine Bizouard and Francois Pin, not only crafted the areas for the permanent collections but created a media library, an auditorium, a bookshop, an area dedicated to educational workshops. The museum provides areas for temporary exhibitions, educational activities, research, making it a dynamic and innovative cultural venue; the museum's permanent collection was assembled from three main sources. The first is the Musée d’art juif de Paris, whose collection was given to the mahJ, it consisted of European religious objects, graphic works by Russian and German Jewish artists and artists from the School of Paris, architectural models of European synagogues destroyed by the Nazis. The second source is the Musée national du Moyen-Age in Paris, known as the musée Cluny; this collection was built up by a French Jew from the 19th century. He collected 149 religious objects during his travels throughout Europe, including furniture, ceremonial objects, Hebrew manuscripts.
A Holy Arch from Italy from the 15th century, wedding rings, illuminated ketubbot are examples of artefacts in his collection. Strauss in regarded as the first collector of Jewish objects. Part of his collection was displayed during the 1878 Exposition Universelle, provoking a strong interest. After his death, his collection was acquired by Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1890, she gave it to the State to be donated to the Musée Cluny. Sixty six rare medieval funeral steles, discovered in 1894 rue Pierre-Sarrazin, are on a long-term loan from the musée Cluny; the third source is a set of long-term loans from museums such as le Centre Pompidou, the Musée d'Orsay, the Musée du Louvre, the Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie. The museum's collection was enriched by loans from the Consistory of Paris, the Jewish Museum in Prague and donations from the Fondation du Judaïsme français; the museum acquired a large photography collection. The collection has over 1500 photographs of Jewish communities from the past and present, of historical events, of Jewish architectural heritage.
At its creation, the museum outlined five missions that it seeks to fulfill: Present two thousand years of history of Jewish communities in France and contextualize them in the overall history of Judaism. Conserve, study and promote the museum's collection and documents relating to Jewish history and art. Make the collection as accessible as possible to a large public. Organize the diffusion of all forms of artistic expressions relating to Jewish culture in all its diversity. Create and execute educational operations and enterprises to promote Jewish culture; the mahJ chose a time period covering Jewish history from its beginnings in France until the birth of the State of Israel, without including the Holocaust. The project for the Mémorial de la Shoah, now located 800 yards from the museum existed when the mahJ was created, with the goal of commemorating the Holocaust; the mahJ and the Memorial complement each other. The museum explores Jewish history and identity without the memory of the Holocaust being the main element.
The Holocaust is such a singular and momentous event that it can overshadow the rich heritage of Judaism outside of it, deserves its own focused space. Furthermore, the museum favors a historical approach to Judaism
Conciergerie
The Conciergerie is a building in Paris, located on the west of the Île de la Cité a prison but presently used for law courts. It was part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, which consisted of the Conciergerie, Palais de Justice and the Sainte-Chapelle. Hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution were taken from the Conciergerie to be executed by guillotine at a number of locations around Paris; the west part of the island was the site of a Merovingian palace, was known as the Palais de la Cité. From the 10th to the 14th centuries, it was the main palace of the medieval Kings of France. During the reigns of Louis IX and Philippe IV the Merovingian palace was extended and fortified more extensively. Louis IX added the Sainte-Chapelle and associated galleries, while Philippe IV created the towered facade on the Seine river side and a large hall. Both are excellent examples of French secular architecture of the period; the Sainte-Chapelle was built in the French royal style to house the crown of thorns, brought back from the Crusades and to serve as a royal chapel.
The "Grande Salle" was one of the largest in Europe, its lower story, known as "La Salle des Gens d'Armes" survives at 64m long, 27.5m wide and 8.5m high. It was used as a dining room for the 2,000 staff members, it lit by many windows, now blocked. It was used for royal banquets and judicial proceedings; the neighboring Salle des Gardes was used as an antechamber to the Great Hall above, where the king held his lit de justice. The early Valois kings continued to modify the palace during the 14th century, but Charles V abandoned the palace during 1358, relocating across the river to the Louvre Palace; the palace continued to serve an administrative function and still included the chancellery and French Parliament. In the king's absence, he appointed a concierge to command of the palace, a fact which gave the palace its eventual name. During 1391, part of the building was converted for use as a prison and took its name from the ruling office, its prisoners were a mixture of political prisoners. In common with other prisons of the time, the treatment of prisoners was dependent on their wealth and associates.
Wealthy or influential prisoners got their own cells with a bed and materials for reading and writing. Less-well-off prisoners could afford to pay for furnished cells known as pistoles, which would be equipped with a rough bed and a table; the poorest, known as the pailleux from the paille that they slept on, would be confined to dark, vermin-infested cells known as oubliettes. In keeping with the name, they were left to live or die in conditions that were ideal for the plague and other infectious diseases, which were rife in the unsanitary conditions of the prison. Three towers survive from the medieval Conciergerie: the Caesar Tower, named in honor of the Roman Emperors; the building was extended during the reigns of kings with France's first public clock being installed about 1370. The current clock dates from 1535; the ten month Reign of Terror had a profound effect on France. More than 40,000 people died from execution and imprisonment, France would not be a republic again for nearly half a century.
The National Convention enacted the Law of Suspects on September 17, 1793. This act declared that anyone considered a counter-revolutionary or enemy of the republic was guilty of treason and, condemned to death; the Revolutionary Tribunal was set up in the Palace of Justice. The two fates for those sent before the tribunal were acquittal or death, with no possibility of appeal. Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, a radical, was named public prosecutor; the Tribunal sat in the Great Hall between 2 April 1793 and 31 May 1795 and sent nearly 2,600 prisoners to the guillotine. The Conciergerie prison became the main penitentiary of a network of prisons throughout Paris, was the last place of housing for more than 2,700 people, who were summarily executed by guillotine; the dank dungeons were a stark contrast to the beautiful architecture of the palace above. The quality of life of the prisoners was based on their personal wealth and the whims of the jailers; the revolutionary period continued the prison's tradition of interning prisoners based on wealth, such that wealthier prisoners could rent a bed for 27 livres 12 sous for the first month, 22 livres 10 sous for subsequent months.
When the price was decreased to 15 livres, the commanders of the prison made a fortune: as the Terror escalated, a prisoner could pay for a bed and be executed a few days freeing the bed for a new inmate who would pay as well. One memoirist termed the Conciergerie "the most lucrative furnished lodgings in Paris". Only celebrity prisoners were assigned cells to themselves. Most of the pistole inmates were stuffed into a single room that abutted a local hospital, making disease an inevitability; the cramped cells were infested with rats, the stench of urine permeated every room. All the prisoners, except those locked in the dungeons, were allowed to walk about the prisoners' gallery from 8 a.m. to an hour before sunset. Roll call was always a tortuous proceeding because many of the jail
Musée Carnavalet
The Musée Carnavalet in Paris is dedicated to the history of the city. The museum occupies two neighboring mansions: the Hôtel Carnavalet and the former Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau. On the advice of Baron Haussmann, the civil servant who transformed Paris in the latter half of the 19th century, the Hôtel Carnavalet was purchased by the Municipal Council of Paris in 1866. By the latter part of the 20th century, the museum was full to capacity; the Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau was annexed to the Carnavalet and opened to the public in 1989. Carnavalet Museum is one of the 14 City of Paris' Museums that have been incorporated since January 1, 2013 in the public institution Paris Musées. It's closed for renovation till the end of 2019. In the courtyard, a magnificent sculpture of Louis XIV, the Sun King, greets the visitor. Inside the museum, the exhibits show the transformation of the village of Lutèce, inhabited by the Parisii tribes, to the grand city of today with a population of 2,201,578.
The Carnavalet houses the following: about 2,600 paintings, 20,000 drawings, 300,000 engravings and 150,000 photographs, 2,000 modern sculptures and 800 pieces of furniture, thousands of ceramics, many decorations and reliefs, thousands of coins, countless items, many of them souvenirs of famous characters, thousands of archeological fragments.... The period called Modern Time, which spans from the Renaissance until today, is known by the vast amount of images of the city.... There are many views of the streets and monuments of Paris from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, but there are many portraits of characters who played a role in the history of the capital and works showing events which took place in Paris the many revolutions which stirred the capital, as well as many scenes of the daily life in all the social classes. Long narrow canoes made from a single tree trunk, dating back long before the first written description of the village in A. D. 52 in Julius Caesar's De bello Gallico A beautiful fourth-century bottle used for perfume, wine, or honey An ornate chest from the 13th century, which came from the royal Abbey of Saint Denis A well-preserved 14th-century sculpture of the head of the Virgin Mary and contemplative, despite the tumultuous events that decimated the city at that time: the Hundred Years' War and the Great Plague of 1348 Paintings from the 16th century depicting famous men and women of the time, including Francis I, Catherine de' Medici, Henry IV.
A painting of the Pont Neuf in about 1660 showing Parisians on foot. A vendor is showing his wares to a crowd of interested on-lookers, a man is walking hunched over with a bundle on his back. Several paintings of Madame de Sévigné, considered the most beautiful woman in Paris The famous uncompleted painting by Jacques-Louis David, The Tennis Court Oath, portraying a pivotal event in French history when members of the National Assembly swore an emotional oath that they would not disband until they had passed a "solid and equitable Constitution." This event is regarded as the beginning of the French Revolution. Paintings showing the people's revenge on the Bastille, a dungeon that had become "a symbol of the arbitrariness of royal power." Paintings or sculptures of the famous actors in the drama of the Revolution, including Mirabeau, Danton and the royal family A painting of death by guillotine at the Place de la Révolution, by Pierre-Antoine Demauchy: the fate that struck King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, the Royalists, the Girondins, the Hébertists, the Dantonists and his followers, many others Personal effects belonging to Marie-Antoinette.
A paper on which Robespierre had written his signature when he was seized by soldiers of the National Convention. Napoleon's favorite case of toiletries Paintings of early-19th-century Paris A painting depicting one of the most important moments of the July Revolution: The Seizing of the Louvre, 29 July 1830, by Jean-Louis Bézard Marvelous sculptures of Parisians of the time, some realistic portrayals, others caricatures, by Jean-Pierre Dantan The ornate cradle of the imperial prince, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, son of the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie Illustrated posters from the Belle Epoque Realistic paintings of late 19th-century Paris. A gold watch-chronometer that belonged to Émile Zola A painting of the construction of the Statue of Liberty, shipped to the United States in pieces Paintings of the Exposition Universelle, including one of the Eiffel Tower, built for this event, it was used in the 1970 Walt Disney animated film "Aristocats". A reconstruction, with original furniture, of the room where Marcel Proust wrote In search of lost time Photographs of 20th-century Paris by Eugène Atget and Henri Cartier-Bresson A stylized painting of a crowded bistro of the mid-1900s, by the naturalized Japanese artist, Leonard Foujita A photograph in daguerreotype, The Forum of the Halles, taken by two American photographers in 1989 for an exhibit at the Carnavalet celebrating the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography Hôtel de CarnavaletIn 1548, Jacques des Ligneris, President of the Parliament of Paris, ordered the construction of the mansion that came to be known as the Hôtel Carnavalet.
In 1578, the widow of Francois de Kernevenoy, a Breton whose name was rendered in French as Carnavalet, purchased the building. In 1654, the mansion was bought by Claude Boislève, who commissioned the well-known architect, François Mansart, to make extensive renovations. Madame de Sévigné, famous for her letter-writing, lived in the Hôtel Carnavalet from 1677 un
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier is a 1,979-seat opera house, built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was called the Salle des Capucines, because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier, in recognition of its opulence and its architect, Charles Garnier; the theatre is often referred to as the Opéra Garnier and was known as the Opéra de Paris or the Opéra, as it was the primary home of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when the Opéra Bastille opened at the Place de la Bastille. The Paris Opera now uses the Palais Garnier for ballet; the Palais Garnier has been called "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica." This is at least due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and the popular 1986 musical.
Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive, it has been described as the only one, "unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank." This opinion is far from unanimous however: the 20th-century French architect Le Corbusier once described it as "a lying art" and contended that the "Garnier movement is a décor of the grave". The Palais Garnier houses the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris, although the Library-Museum is no longer managed by the Opera and is part of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France; the museum is included in unaccompanied tours of the Palais Garnier. The opera was constructed in what Charles Garnier is said to have told the Empress Eugenie was "Napoleon III" style The Napoleon III style was eclectic, borrowed from many historical sources; these were combined with axial symmetry and modern techniques and materials, including the use of an iron framework, pioneered in other Napoleon III buildings, including the Bibliotheque Nationale and the markets of Les Halles.
The façade and the interior followed the Napoleon III style principle of leaving no space without decoration. Garnier used polychromy, or a variety of colors, for theatrical effect, achieved different varieties of marble and stone and gilded bronze; the façade of the Opera used seventeen different kinds of material, arranged in elaborate multicolored marble friezes and lavish statuary, many of which portray deities of Greek mythology. The principal façade is on the south side of the building, overlooking the Place de l'Opéra and terminates the perspective along the Avenue de l'Opéra. Fourteen painters and seventy-three sculptors participated in the creation of its ornamentation; the two gilded figural groups, Charles Gumery's L'Harmonie and La Poésie, crown the apexes of the principal façade's left and right avant-corps. They are both made of gilt copper electrotype; the bases of the two avant-corps are decorated with four major multi-figure groups sculpted by François Jouffroy, Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Jean-Joseph Perraud.
The façade incorporates other work by Gumery, Alexandre Falguière, others. Gilded galvanoplastic bronze busts of many of the great composers are located between the columns of the theatre's front façade and depict, from left to right, Auber, Mozart, Spontini and Halévy. On the left and right lateral returns of the front façade are busts of the librettists Eugène Scribe and Philippe Quinault, respectively; the sculptural group Apollo and Music, located at the apex of the south gable of the stage flytower, is the work of Aimé Millet, the two smaller bronze Pegasus figures at either end of the south gable are by Eugène-Louis Lequesne. Known as the Rotonde de l'Empereur, this group of rooms is located on the left side of the building and was designed to allow secure and direct access by the Emperor via a double ramp to the building; when the Empire fell, work stopped. It now houses the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris, home to nearly 600,000 documents including 100,000 books, 1,680 periodicals, 10,000 programs, letters, 100,000 photographs, sketches of costumes and sets and historical administrative records.
Located on the right side of the building as a counterpart to the Pavillon de l'Empereur, this pavilion was designed to allow subscribers direct access from their carriages to the interior of the building. It is covered by a 13.5-metre diameter dome. Paired obelisks mark the entrances to the rotunda on the south; the interior consists of interweaving corridors, stairwells and landings, allowing the movement of large numbers of people and space for socialising during intermission. Rich with velvet, gold leaf, cherubim and nymphs, the interior is characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness; the building features a large ceremonial staircase of white marble with a balustrade of red and green marble, which divides into two divergent flights of stairs that lead to the Grand Foyer. Its design was inspired by Victor Louis's grand staircase for the Théâtre de Bordeaux; the pedestals of the staircase are decorated with female torchères, created by Albert-Ernest
Guimet Museum
The Guimet Museum is an art museum located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It has one of the largest collections abroad of Asian art. Founded by Émile Étienne Guimet, an industrialist, the museum first opened at Lyon in 1879 but was transferred to Paris, opening in the place d'Iéna in 1889. Devoted to travel, Guimet was in 1876 commissioned by the minister of public instruction to study the religions of the Far East, the museum contains many of the fruits of this expedition, including a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain and many objects relating not to the religions of the East but to those of ancient Egypt and Rome. One of its wings, the Panthéon Bouddhique, displays religious artworks; some of the museum's artifacts were collected from Southeast Asia by French authorities during the colonial period. From December 2006 to April 2007, the museum harboured collections of the Kabul Museum, with archaeological pieces from the Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum, the Indo-Scythian treasure of Tillia Tepe.
List of museums in Paris Musée Guimet
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle named Place de l'Étoile — the étoile or "star" of the juncture formed by its twelve radiating avenues. The location of the arc and the plaza is shared between 16th, 17th and 8th; the Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I; as the central cohesive element of the Axe historique, the Arc de Triomphe was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806, its iconographic program pits heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments with triumphant patriotic messages. Inspired by the Arch of Titus in Rome, the Arc de Triomphe has an overall height of 50 metres, width of 45 m and depth of 22 m, while its large vault is 29.19 m high and 14.62 m wide.
The smaller transverse vaults are 8.44 m wide. Three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane under the arch's primary vault, with the event captured on newsreel. Paris's Arc de Triomphe was the tallest triumphal arch until the completion of the Monumento a la Revolución in Mexico City in 1938, 67 metres high; the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, completed in 1982, is modelled on the Arc de Triomphe and is taller at 60 m. La Grande Arche in La Defense near Paris is 110 metres high. Although it is not named an Arc de Triomphe, it has been designed on the same model and in the perspective of the Arc de Triomphe, it qualifies as the world's tallest arch. The Arc de Triomphe is located on the right bank of the Seine at the centre of a dodecagonal configuration of twelve radiating avenues, it was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years and, in 1810, when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed.
The architect, Jean Chalgrin, died in 1811 and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot. During the Bourbon Restoration, construction was halted and it would not be completed until the reign of King Louis-Philippe, between 1833 and 1836, by the architects Goust Huyot, under the direction of Héricart de Thury. On 15 December 1840, brought back to France from Saint Helena, Napoleon's remains passed under it on their way to the Emperor's final resting place at the Invalides. Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was displayed under the Arc during the night of 22 May 1885; the sword carried by the Republic in the Marseillaise relief broke off on the day, it is said, that the Battle of Verdun began in 1916. The relief was hidden by tarpaulins to conceal the accident and avoid any undesired ominous interpretations. On 7 August 1919, Charles Godefroy flew his biplane under the Arc. Jean Navarre was the pilot, tasked to make the flight, but he died on 10 July 1919 when he crashed near Villacoublay while training for the flight.
Following its construction, the Arc de Triomphe became the rallying point of French troops parading after successful military campaigns and for the annual Bastille Day military parade. Famous victory marches around or under the Arc have included the Germans in 1871, the French in 1919, the Germans in 1940, the French and Allies in 1944 and 1945. A United States postage stamp of 1945 shows the Arc de Triomphe in the background as victorious American troops march down the Champs-Élysées and U. S. airplanes fly overhead on 29 August 1944. After the interment of the Unknown Soldier, all military parades have avoided marching through the actual arch; the route taken is up to the arch and around its side, out of respect for the tomb and its symbolism. Both Hitler in 1940 and de Gaulle in 1944 observed this custom. By the early 1960s, the monument had grown blackened from coal soot and automobile exhaust, during 1965–1966 it was cleaned through bleaching. In the prolongation of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a new arch, the Grande Arche de la Défense, was built in 1982, completing the line of monuments that forms Paris's Axe historique.
After the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, the Grande Arche is the third arch built on the same perspective. In 1995, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria placed a bomb near the Arc de Triomphe which wounded 17 people as part of a campaign of bombings. In late 2018, the Arc de Triomphe suffered acts of vandalism as part of the Yellow vests movement protests; the astylar design is in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture. Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; the main sculptures are not integral friezes but are treated as independent trophies applied to the vast ashlar masonry masses, not unlike the gilt-bronze appliqués on Empire furniture. The four sculptural groups at the base of the Ar
Porte Saint-Denis
The Porte Saint-Denis is a Parisian monument located in the 10th arrondissement, at the site of one of the gates of the Wall of Charles V, one of Paris' former city walls. It is located at the crossing of the Rue Saint-Denis continued by the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, with the Boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle and the Boulevard Saint-Denis; the Porte Saint-Denis was a gateway through the Wall of Charles V, built between 1356 and 1383 to protect the Right Bank of Paris. The medieval fortification was surmounted with four towers. Additional portcullises defended the outer gate along with a rock-cut ditch. However, with the advent of gunpowder and the development of cannons and bombards, the walls were partly torn down in the 1640s to make way for the larger and more fortified Louis XIII Wall. In the 1670s, the remaining walls of Charles V were demolished when Paris spread beyond the confines of its medieval boundaries. To replace the old gateway of Porte Saint-Denis, Louis XIV commanded architect François Blondel and the sculptor Michel Anguier to build him a monumental archway that would honor the capture of Franche-Comté in 1668 and the victories on the Rhine during the Franco-Dutch War.
Work was paid for by the city of Paris. A monument defining the official art of its epoque, the Porte Saint-Denis provided the subject of the engraved frontispiece to Blondel's influential Cours d'architecture, 1698, it was restored in 1988. The Porte Saint-Denis was the first of four triumphal arches to be built in Paris; the three others are the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Porte Saint-Martin, Arc de Triomphe. The Porte Saint-Denis is a triumphal arch inspired by the Arch of Titus in Rome; the monument is 24.65 m high, 25 m wide, 5 m deep. The arch itself is 15.35 m high in the center and 8 m across. The main arch is flanked by obelisks applied to the wall face bearing sculptural groups of trophies of arms. Above the main arch, the southern face carries a sculptural group by Michel Anguier of "The Passage of the Rhine" in a sunk panel, while the north face carries allegorical figures of the Rhine and the Netherlands; the entablature bears the gilded bronze inscription LUDOVICO MAGNO, "To Louis the Great".
Two smaller pedestrian walkways were built through the obelisk pedestals but they have now been closed. The arch is decorated with a variety of sculptures and friezes Porte Saint-Martin Insecula - Porte Saint-Denis
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