Statue of Marshal Joseph Joffre

A bronze marshal sits atop a horse, his uniform heavy with detail and his gaze fixed toward the École Militaire. This is the monument to Joseph Joffre, the commander who halted the German advance at the Marne in nineteen fourteen. Sculptor Maxime Real del Sarte cast the figure in nineteen thirty-nine, but the bronze was confiscated and melted down by occupying forces during the Second World War. The statue standing there today is a nineteen fifty-seven reconstruction, identical to the lost original.