Lion of Belfort

The copper lion at the center of Place Denfert-Rochereau stands in a tense, alert posture, its muscular form stretching over seven meters in length. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi created this work in eighteen eighty to commemorate the defense of the city of Belfort during the Franco-Prussian War of eighteen seventy. It is a one-third-scale replica of the monumental red sandstone original that overlooks the city of Belfort itself.