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| Alma bridge | ||
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France France, Paris |
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In 1970-1974, the old bridge was replaced with a modern one in order to expand it for the needs of road traffic. At present, of the four statues on the bridge, only the figure of the Zouave has survived. The rest were taken outside of Paris: for example, "Infantryman" is in the Vincennes fort Gravel. Having received a refusal to exhibit his paintings at the official Salon, the artist Edouard Manet erected a barrack near the Alma Bridge to display them. The action of Remarque's novel "Arc de Triomphe" begins on this bridge. At the entrance to the bridge in 1999, a replica of the torch flame of the Statue of Liberty, known as "Flame of Freedom"... After the death of the English princess Diana in the tunnel near the Alma Bridge, this sculptural composition was rethought as a monument in her honor. Paris-zouave-pont-de-l-alma.jpg Chasseur a pied.jpg "Infantryman" Diebolt - le grenadier.jpg "Grenadier" P1030749 Paris XV Avenue de New-York et Flamme de la Liberté rwk.JPG "Flame of Freedom" Location | |
| Downstream: Debiya bridge |
Upstream: Bridge of the Invalids |
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Excerpt from the Alma Bridge
- Mais, mon cher, [But, my dear,] I did it for myself, for my conscience, and there is nothing to thank me. No one ever complained that he was loved too much; and then, you are free, even if tomorrow give it up. You will see everything yourself in Petersburg. And it's high time for you to get away from these terrible memories. - Prince Vasily sighed. - So so, my soul. And let my valet ride in your carriage. Oh yes, I just forgot, ”added Prince Vasily,“ you know, mon cher, that we had accounts with the deceased, so I got it from Ryazan and I will leave it: you don’t need it. We will reckon with you.What Prince Vasily called from "Ryazan" was several thousand rent, which Prince Vasily kept.
In St. Petersburg, as well as in Moscow, an atmosphere of gentle, loving people surrounded Pierre. He could not refuse the place or, rather, the title (because he did nothing), which Prince Vasily gave him, and there were so many acquaintances, calls and social activities that Pierre felt even more than in Moscow, he felt a sense of bewilderment, haste and everything that comes, but does not happen any good.
From his former bachelor society, many were not in St. Petersburg. The guard went on a campaign. Dolokhov was demoted, Anatole was in the army, in the provinces, Prince Andrei was abroad, and therefore Pierre could neither spend nights, as he used to love to spend them, nor occasionally take away his soul in a friendly conversation with an older respected friend. All the time it was held at dinners, balls and mainly at Prince Vasily's - in the company of the fat princess, his wife, and the beautiful Helen.
Anna Pavlovna Sherer, like the others, showed Pierre the change that had taken place in the public view of him.
Previously, in the presence of Anna Pavlovna, Pierre constantly felt that what he was saying was indecent, tactless, not what was needed; that his speeches, which seem clever to him, while he prepares them in his imagination, become stupid as soon as he speaks out loudly, and that, on the contrary, the most stupid speeches of Hippolytus come out clever and sweet. Now whatever he said, everything came out charmant. If even Anna Pavlovna did not say this, then he saw that she wanted to say it, and she only, in respect of his modesty, refrained from it.
At the beginning of winter from 1805 to 1806, Pierre received from Anna Pavlovna the usual pink note with an invitation, in which was added: "Vous trouverez chez moi la belle Helene, qu" on ne se lasse jamais de voir. " you never tire of admiring.]
Reading this passage, Pierre for the first time felt that some kind of connection had formed between him and Helene, recognized by other people, and this thought at the same time frightened him, as if an obligation was imposed on him that he could not keep, and together he liked it, like a funny guess.
Anna Pavlovna's evening was the same as the first one, only the novelty that Anna Pavlovna treated her guests was no longer Mortemar, but a diplomat who had arrived from Berlin and brought the freshest details about Tsar Alexander's stay in Potsdam and how the two highest they swore there in an indissoluble alliance to defend a just cause against the enemy of the human race. Pierre was received by Anna Pavlovna with a tinge of sadness, which apparently related to the fresh loss that befell the young man, to the death of Count Bezukhoi (everyone constantly considered it their duty to assure Pierre that he was very upset by the death of his father, whom he hardly knew), and sadness exactly the same as that highest sadness, which was expressed at the mention of the august Empress Maria Feodorovna. Pierre felt flattered by this. Anna Pavlovna, with her usual art, arranged circles in her drawing-room. A large circle, where Prince Vasily and the generals were, used a diplomat. Another circle was at the tea table. Pierre wanted to join the first, but Anna Pavlovna, who was in an irritated state of the commander on the battlefield, when thousands of new brilliant thoughts come that you barely have time to carry out, Anna Pavlovna, seeing Pierre, touched his sleeve with her finger.
The Alma Bridge in Paris was first built during the reign of Napoleon III.
However, it was completely renovated in the 1970s and only one original statue remains today on this bridge over the Seine.
We always remember that near the Pont de Alma in Paris, Princess Diana lost her life.
A bit of history
The first bridge, called Pont d'Alma in French, was built between 1854 and 1856.
It was named after the emperor's first victory during the Crimean War in September 1854.
The bridge at that time had three elliptical arches and four stone piers with water cutters, each of which was decorated with a statue.
Three of these were later transported to various locations in France, and only a statue called the Zouave remains to this day.
However, by 1960 the bridge was deemed too narrow for traffic and river traffic, which meant the decision to replace the entire bridge was made in June 1963.
Engineers and architects were selected, however, work on replacing the bridge did not begin until May 1970.
It was decided that there would be only one single pier to make navigation on the river easier for different boats. In addition to this, the foundations of the bridge had to be lowered down to a depth of 40 meters to avoid subsidence problems, which reached an incredible 80 centimeters by 1960.
Ultimately, the new Pont Alma in Paris was completed in 1974.
About Alma Bridge
You will find that the bridge has long, gentle curves on either side of one pier and one solid statue of Zouave, from the days when the original bridge in Paris was built.
And it is this statue that is used as a reference point when the water rises in the Seine. When the water reaches the feet of the statue, it’s nothing. at its worst, in 1910 it reached the shoulders.
However, the French civil service actually use the Tournelle Bridge as an official guide to flood levels on the river.
The Alma Bridge over the Seine River is probably the most recognizable because of its name and the tragedy that took place in a nearby tunnel back in 1997 when Princess Diana died in a car accident.
And today, at the northern end of the bridge, there is a sculpture called the Flame of Freedom, which became an unofficial monument to Diana, where wreaths and flowers are still placed.
It should be noted that in reality the sculpture has nothing to do with those tragic events.
Photo and description
The Alma Bridge is best known for the fact that Princess Diana died in the tunnel under it. On the night of August 31, 1997, the princess with her friend Dodi Al-Fayed left the Ritz Hotel to meet her death. Ten minutes later, the car, which was leaving the paparazzi motorcycles at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, crashed into the support of the tunnel.
People in droves went to the place of the tragedy to honor the memory of the princess. Above the tunnel, at the entrance to the bridge, stands the Flame of Liberty - a gilded replica of the torch of the Statue of Liberty, a gift from America to France, a sign of friendship between the two countries. It was here that people began to lay mountains of flowers.
Now many people think that the torch is a monument to Diana. Perhaps this offends both France and America a little. (The Paris Mayor's Office offends - it is necessary to remove the graffiti, remove the bouquets, monitor the safety of the sculpture.) In any case, in 2008, a new Flame of Freedom was installed in the courtyard of the US Embassy in France. The sculpture by Jean Cardo was unveiled in the presence of Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and George W. Bush.
However, the Alma Bridge is interesting not only because of the tragedy played out under it. Opened in 1856, it was named in honor of the victory of the Franco-English coalition over the Russian troops in the battle on the Alma River - the first major battle of the Crimean War.
On four sides, under the bridge, there were sculptures of the military who participated in the battle on the Alma - a zouave (a soldier of the French colonial troops), a grenadier, an infantryman and an artilleryman. After the reconstruction of the 1970s, only the Zouave remained, the rest of the statues are now in other places. It was impossible to remove the Zouave - this is a legendary figure for the Parisians: it was by her that the water level in the Seine was determined. If the water covered the feet of the Zouave, the police blocked the passage to the river, and if the water reached the hips, they stopped navigation. During the famous Paris flood in January 1910, the water reached the shoulders of the Zouave! The flood lasted for about two months, the city was flooded so that it was only possible to swim on it. The water rose 8.6 meters. There are many photos left: people sailing around Paris in boats, crossing the streets along makeshift narrow bridges. There is also a photograph of a zouave peeping out of the water.
Now, to officially determine the water level in the Seine, another bridge is used - the Tournelle, but Parisians know that the easiest way is to look at the Zouave under the Alma bridge.
Where else to go ?:
World heritage. Part 14. Banks of the Seine in Paris / Paris, Banks of the Seine - andrey petrov
Palais de Justice (Conciergerie) - Paris, Ile-de-France - on the map
Want to see a 150 meter arched bridge over the Seine river in Paris? Then you need to go to the Alma Bridge. The bridge was built during the reign of Emperor Napaleon III, in 1856 near the name square - Alma.
The bridge got its name in honor of the victory of France over Russia at the Alma River in 1854 during the Crimean War.
In 1900, a pedestrian bridge was added to the bridge, which significantly increased the length of the bridge, 2 times. The need for an extension was that from April 15 to November 12, the World Exhibition was held in Paris and the bridge was one of the exhibits. Here were placed the figures of the fighters of the French regiments, which they came to see.
In 1974 the bridge was rebuilt in order to expand it for transport links. During the expansion, three of the figures of the fighters (grenadier, mountain shooter and artilleryman) were removed from the bridge and only one figure remained in the east side on the rightmost pillar - the figure of the Zuave.
The Parisians have found use for the statue. During floods, the statue is used to measure the water level: if the water rises above the knee of the Zouave, then there will be a serious flood.
At the entrance to the bridge, you can see a replica of the torch of the Statue of Liberty - Flame of Liberty, erected in 1989.
It was in the tunnel of the Alma Bridge that the most famous princess Diana died, so the Flame of Freedom is considered a monument dedicated to the English princess.
Updated: 03.11.2015The Alma Bridge in Paris was erected in the middle of the 19th century in honor of the victory of the French troops over the army of the Russian Empire in the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War. For a long time, it was an ordinary road bridge that did not attract much attention from tourists. The design gained notoriety after Princess Diana died in a car accident in the tunnel underneath. Today, Lady Di's fans from all over the world come to the Alma Bridge. Fresh flowers always lie at the site of the death of the English princess, and the walls around it are covered with declarations of love addressed to her.
The history of the appearance and appearance of the bridge
The death of Princess Diana on the last day of the summer of 1997 shocked the whole world. The death of the national favorite became a personal tragedy for tens of millions of people, and the bridge, at the entrance to which there was a bloody accident, turned into a place of pilgrimage for tourists. What is the Alma Bridge, which played a fatal role in Lady Dee's life? The history of the 153-meter arched structure begins in 1854, when, in honor of the French victory over the Russian troops, Emperor Napoleon III of France ordered the laying of a new bridge across the Seine. The construction of the building was completed in 1856. It received its name in honor of the Alma Square located not far from it. Initially, the length of the bridge was about 75 m, but in 1900 it became 2 times longer due to the pedestrian road attached to it.
Moulin Rouge cabaret
Expert opinion
Knyazeva Victoria
Guide to Paris and France
Ask an expertThe abutments of the bridge, on which the death of Princess Diana took place, used to be decorated with statues of soldiers of the French army, namely an infantryman, a grenadier, a zouave and an artilleryman. From these figures, the Parisians determined the water level in the Seine. If it touched the ankles of the statues, passers-by were forbidden to be near the river. If the water reached the level of the thighs of the military, this meant that the Seine River in Paris could overflow its banks at any time. In such situations, river navigation was temporarily suspended in the city.
In the 70s of the last century, the city authorities underwent a thorough reconstruction, as a result of which it was expanded and completely renovated. Of the 4 statues, the city planners decided to keep only the figure of the Zouave. With its help, Parisians still determine the water level in the Seine.
Some tourists are sure that there is Alma near the bridge, but they are wrong. The French capital is indeed decorated with several copies of this monument, but none of them have been installed near the bridge in question. The largest Statue of Liberty in Paris, donated to the French by the American diaspora in 1889, stands on Swan Island. Its height is 11.5 m. Smaller copies today adorn the Orsay Art Gallery and the Museum of Arts and Sciences. But it cannot be argued that the bridge has nothing to do with the legendary statue, since in 1989, at the entrance to it, a sculptural composition called "The Flame of Freedom" was placed. It reproduces exactly the flame of the torch of the Statue of Liberty in New York.
National Library of France
For some unknown reason, tourists visiting Paris lay flowers at the monument, believing that it was installed on the site where Princess Diana died, although in fact she crashed in a tunnel directly below it.
Below you can see the entrance to the tunnel (under the Alma Bridge), where, in fact, everything happened.
Fatal accident in the tunnel at the entrance to the bridge
Prince Charles' ex-wife Diana and her fiancé Dodi Al-Fayed were killed in a disaster on August 31, 1997. The car, in which the lovers were, got into a fatal accident in the tunnel under the Alma Bridge. Dodi Al-Fayed and the driver of the car were killed instantly. The death of Princess Diana came 2 hours after the accident. Today, there are several versions trying to explain the cause of the disaster on the Alma Bridge. According to experts, the death of Lady Di could be due to:
- the persecution of the paparazzi, who blinded the princess's chauffeur with the flashes of their photographic lenses;
- alcoholic intoxication of the driver;
- the English queen's revenge on her former daughter-in-law.
The photo, in which the correspondents captured the place of the death of Princess Diana, flew around the world for several hours. Parisians and guests of the city began to come to the Pont de Alma to lay flowers on the scene of the accident. Almost 20 years have passed since the death of the English princess, but crowds of people still arrive on the bridge, wanting to honor her memory. The parapet of the tunnel is covered with poems and declarations of love to the Princess of Wales, and near the Flame of Freedom, installed not far from the site of the tragedy, even in winter there are fresh flowers.
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Nearest hotels: | 370 meters away | Melia Royal Alma Boutique Hotel | from | 180 € * | |
| 960 meters away | Hotel Alma | from | 100 € * | |||
| 760 meters away | Hotel Malar | from | 85 € * | |||
| * minimum cost of a room for two in low season | ||||||
| Nearest metro: | Alma - Marceau (Alma - Marceau) | line | ||||
Alma Square owes its entry to the guidebooks exclusively to Princess Diana of Wales. We will try to bypass, as far as possible, that sad story, and tell about the history of the square, its name and sights.
For the first Parisian world exhibition in 1855, held on the Champs Elysees, a bridge was built, connecting the now extremely respectable 8th with the no less respectable 7th arrondissement of Paris. Napoleon III named the bridge Alma, in honor of the victory of the French, Turks and British over the Russians in the Battle of the Alma River in the Crimean War.
It was just before that battle that one of our commanders for the first time said his own words: "We will shower the enemy with hats." In English paintings, Alma is full-flowing almost like the Seine, but now it's just a dirty stream - everything is shallower.
The choice of the name for the bridge and, for the company, the square is not surprising, because Napoleon III was very proud of his victory in the Crimean War (at first Nicholas I offended him, saying that, they say, they piled the first Napoleon, and you come in). The bridge glorified the victories of French weapons, and under its supports stood sculptures of representatives of the branches of the army: an infantryman, an artilleryman, a grenadier and a zouave (Zouaves are infantry recruited from North Africans). The Zouave used to measure the water level in the Seine: every part of his body, hiding under water, launched certain flood control procedures in the municipality, so the Zouave's thigh, hiding in the water, blocked river navigation. In 1970, the bridge was rebuilt, Zouave was raised above the water, and his comrades-in-arms were sent some to Vincennes and some to Dijon.
The bridge gave the name to the square, and then to the tunnel. Above the exit from the unfortunate tunnel there is a beautiful monument - this is the Flame of Freedom.
In 1886, the French presented the famous New York Statue of Liberty to the Americans. Since then, grateful Americans give Freedom back in small copies and piece by piece. First, they gave a copy of the statue in a 1: 5 scale, installed on the arrow of the Swan Island, and then the International Herald Tribune newspaper (English International Herald Tribune) presented Paris with a copy of the torch flame. It was like this: this English-language newspaper, founded in 1887 in Paris, decided to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first issue and announced a collection of donations in order to raise funds for the construction of the monument. Already 2 years later, in 1989, Jacques Chirac, then the Parisian mayor, ...
... opened a monument on Alma Square, which embodies both the friendship between France and the United States, and at the same time the principles of freedom in general and freedom of the press in particular, laid down in the foundations of the statehood of the two countries.
The monument is an exact replica of the torch flame of the New York statue in its current form. The old torch is transparent, illuminated from the inside and was rather ugly (you can see it in the Statue Museum on Liberty Island in New York), and the new one is gilded and illuminated from the outside. I must admit that the monument came out very harmonious, full of meaning and generally extremely successful.
The life of the monument was abruptly changed by an accident that occurred in the tunnel under it on August 31, 1997, which claimed the lives of Princess Diana and Mr. Al-Fayed. An English investigation showed that their driver was drunk, doubled the speed limit, plus no one was wearing a seatbelt - all driver and passenger defects were present. One way or another, in the hysterical posthumous explosion of worldwide love for Lady Dee, the “Flame of Freedom” monument began to be perceived by the townsfolk as a monument to Diana. Municipal officials constantly ripped off photos and messages to the princess, pasted on the pedestal, until the enthusiasm of the masses subsided. The Mayor's Office of Paris even wanted to rename Place Alma into Place Princess Diana, but the idea met with active resistance from the English royal house, and this spectacular step had to be abandoned.
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