Vendôme Column

a 43.5-meter column on the Place Vendôme in Paris. The Vendôme Column was built between 1806 and 1810 by the architects J. B. Lepère and J. Gondouin in honor of the victories of Napoleon I. It was made of the bronze of enemy guns and crowned with a statue of Napoleon. On May 16, 1871, in connection with the decree of the Paris Commune on April 12, the column was removed as a symbol of militarism and wars of conquest. The Vendôme Column was restored in 1875 during the reactionary period that triumphed after the suppression of the Paris Commune of 1871.