Le Lion de Belfort - Paris, France
Posted by: Metro2
N 48° 50.058 E 002° 19.948
31U E 451013 N 5409250
This is a replica of an 1880 sandstone sculpture in Belfort, France.
Waymark Code: WMD1NK
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 11/06/2011
Views: 33
The original 1880 sculpture is located in Belfort, France and is a monument to French resistance during the 1870-1871 Prussian assault there led by Colonel Denfert-Rochereau. (The replica is located in the area of Paris known as Denfert-Rochereau.) The original is made of red sandstone. Read more about it at (
visit link)
This website (
visit link) informs us of the replica located in Paris:
"Le Lion de Belfort (The Lion of Belfort) is a hammered copy of the pink sandstone Lion erected in Belfort, France. Self-financed and sculpted by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, the architect of the Statue of Liberty, from 1872 to 1879, the original 22-meter long Lion de Belfort symbolizes the heroic resistance of Belfort during a 103 days long Prussian assault, from December 1870 to February 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. The city was protected from 40,000 Prussians by just 17,000 men (only 3,500 were from the military). Instead of facing Prussia to the east as was intended, it was turned the other way because of German protests. The replica was installed in Place Denfer-Rochereau in 1880, and restored in 2001. Place Denfert-Rochereau, previously known as Place d'Enfer, located in the XIVe arrondissement in the Montparnasse area and situated at the intersection of boulevards Raspail, Arago and Saint-Jacques, and avenues René Coty, Général Leclerc, Denfert-Rochereau and rue Froidevaux, is named after Colonel Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau, French commander during the Siege of Belfort."