Bridge of Jena (Pont dIena) description and photos - France: Paris (Topic)

Bridge of Jena (Pont d'Iena) description and photos - France: Paris. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Pont d'Iena.

Photo and description

The Pont Jena offers one of the most Parisian views - right at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The bridge has an unusual history: its name almost caused its destruction.

The bridge overlooking the Champ de Mars was ordered to be built by Napoleon in 1807. The Emperor rejected the proposed names - the Champs de Mars Bridge or the Military School - in favor of a name that warmed his vanity: the Jena Bridge. In 1806, Napoleon's troops won a brilliant victory over the Prussian army at Jena. The day of the battle turned out to be a disaster and a shame for Prussia, and for Napoleon, according to him, one of the happiest days of his life.

After the happy days, the black ones came: in 1814, the allied troops entered Paris. By this time, engineer Cornel Laman had just completed the five-arch stone bridge, ordered by the emperor. Among the winners was the Prussian General Blucher, who once took part in the battle of Jena. Seeing the bridge named after that battle, Blucher became furious and planned to blow it up. The crossing was saved only by the intervention of the allies and, as the legend says, personally by Louis XVIII - he allegedly said that the bridge would only be blown up with him. So the bridge was just renamed and the proud imperial eagles that adorned the tympans were removed. Instead, they installed the royal letters L.

However, in France in the XVIII-XIX centuries, the situation changed rapidly. After the revolution of 1830, the bridge was given its historical name, and after the accession to the throne of Napoleon III in 1852 - the eagles. In 1853, at the entrance to the bridge, four sculptures were erected - Gallic, Roman, Arab and Greek soldiers. The dismounted riders stand on powerful pylons near their horses and look very monumental, while from a distance they resemble Klodt horses on the Anichkov bridge in St. Petersburg. All the warriors were made by different sculptors - Auguste Preault, Louis-Joseph Doma, Jean-Jacques Fechet and Francois Deveaux.

The steps leading from the bridge to the embankment are known among movie lovers as the "Renault stairs": it is along them In View of Murder, a Renault taxi, hijacked by James Bond in pursuit of the murderer, rode downhill.

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Topic: Bridge of Jena (Pont dIena) description and photos - France: Paris.