Chevalier de la Barre - Montmartre, France
Posted by: 
denben
N 48° 53.163 E 002° 20.491
31U E 451727 N 5414997
The statue of Chevalier de la Barre stands near the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in Montmartre. It is erected in a small park - Nadar Square - between rue Azais and rue Saint-Eleuthère.
Waymark Code: WMCADB
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 08/15/2011
Views: 28
This bronze statue by the sculptor Emmanuel Ball was erected in 2001. The statue shows a young man with his hat on and his hands in his pocket who seems confident and even arrogant.
The plaque on the plinth of the statue says: Au Chevalier De la Barre supplicié à l'âge de 19 ans le 1er juillet 1766 pour n'avoir pas salué une procession (To the Chevalier de la Barre tortured at the age of 19 years old for not saluting a procession.)
The first statue of Chevalier de la Barre was erected in 1905 and melted down in 1943 to be used for the war effort.
François Jean Lefebvre de la Barre (1745 – 1766) was a French nobleman, famous for having been tortured and beheaded before his body was burnt on a pyre along with Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary". He is often said to have been executed for not saluting a procession, but the elements of the case were far more complex. In France, he is a symbol of Christian religious intolerance, along with Jean Calas and Pierre-Paul Sirven, all championed by Voltaire.
The Chevalier de la Barre Association founded in 1996 is promoting secularism, freedom of conscience and freedom of expression.
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