Rouen's city hall (hôtel de ville) fronts on the place du Géneral de Gaulle. An equestrian statue of Napoléon Bonaparte is a main feature of the place. Right next door is the Saint-Ouen abbey church. The building now occupied by city hall was originally part of the abbey complex, but it has been modifiedf and even re-built a couple of times since the year 1800.
This is an impressive and beautiful building in the classical style.
ReplyDeleteThe hind legs of the horse have been probably reinforced so they won’t break under the weight of the front part of the statue!
Very attractive building. The Napoleon statue is very reminiscent of Jacques-Louis David's paintings of Napoleon crossing the Alps:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Crossing_the_Alps
That was painted 1801.
Thank you, David, for this link. I had no idea there were five versions of the same painting. Maybe the statue was made after the painting?
DeleteRecent controversy over the statue of Napoléon in Rouen...
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