Square Barye

The bronze statue of a lion crushing a serpent dominates the Square Barye. Antoine-Louis Barye sculpted the piece, and his work here marks the spot where his studio once stood on the Île Saint-Louis. He frequently observed the wild animals kept at the nearby Jardin des Plantes to master their anatomy and movement. While the original bronze was melted down for ammunition during the German occupation in nineteen forty-two, the city recast the statue from the original molds in nineteen forty-six.