Columns Of The Throne, Paris

The two matching columns flanking the street at Place de la Nation stand nearly one hundred feet tall. They originate from the wall of the Farmers General, an eighteenth-century tax barrier that surrounded Paris. When the revolutionary architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux designed the gate, he crowned the pillars with bronze statues of Philip Augustus and Saint Louis. These figures vanished during the chaos of the revolution, leaving the pedestals empty for decades. Today, the columns serve as granite sentinels watching over the busy intersection.