Colonne Vendôme

The Colonne Vendôme is a tall, bronze-clad pillar rising forty-four meters above the center of the Place Vendôme. It features a stone core shielded by over four hundred spiraling bronze plates, all cast from twelve hundred cannons captured from Russian and Austrian armies after the Battle of Austerlitz. The column is topped by a statue of Napoleon dressed as a Roman emperor, a visual choice inspired by Trajan’s Column in Rome.