Elephant of the Bastille

Napoleon Bonaparte once envisioned a massive bronze monument on this site to celebrate his military triumphs. He decreed that the statue be cast from cannons captured during his campaigns, with a fountain spraying water from the creature's trunk and a winding staircase hidden inside one of its legs. Instead of a finished bronze masterpiece, however, the project stalled after his fall from power, leaving behind only a giant, hollow model made of wood and plaster.