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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff.

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Speaker 1: Laurena vogebam here. As far as iconic Paris landmarks go,

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Speaker 1: it's a toss up between the Eiffel Tower and the

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Speaker 1: Octa trionf If the Eiffel Tower boasts more t shirts

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Speaker 1: and wal art bearing its image, the octatrionph has given

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Speaker 1: us some great film scenes with cars circling and circling it.

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Speaker 1: That's because it's located within a plaza where twelve avenues,

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Speaker 1: including La chance Luzi meet. It actually isn't the first

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Speaker 1: monument that was proposed for the spot. Some years before

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Speaker 1: the French Revolution, an architects submitted a proposal to build

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Speaker 1: a monument to Louis the fifteenth in the same place.

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Speaker 1: His concept was a three story elephant with rooms inside

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Speaker 1: and a trunk that would water surrounding gardens, but it

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Speaker 1: was not meant to be, and the arch was commissioned

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Speaker 1: by Napoleon Bonaparte to commemorate his Grand Army's I am

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Speaker 1: at the Battle of Austerlitz, which cinched his victory in

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Speaker 1: the first of the Napoleonic Wars in December of eighteen

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Speaker 1: oh five and is still considered one of the most

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Speaker 1: brilliant shows of tactics in history. Construction on the arch

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Speaker 1: started in eighteen oh six, with the first stone laid

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Speaker 1: on August fifteenth. Napoleon planned to ride through it at

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Speaker 1: the head of his victorious army. It was inspired by

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Speaker 1: the Arch of Titus in Rome, a monument built in

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Speaker 1: the first century CE to be fifty feet tall and

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Speaker 1: forty five feet wide that's fifteen five thirteen meters with

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Speaker 1: intricate stone carving all around. It's gone on to inspire

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Speaker 1: many similar monuments, but this French version would be much grander,

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Speaker 1: at one hundred and sixty five feet high one hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty five feet wide that's fifty by forty five meters.

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Speaker 1: Before the article of z epsids based on Hastuffworks, spoke

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Speaker 1: with W. Jude LeBlanc, an associate professor at the School

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Speaker 1: of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He

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Speaker 1: said Napoleon was known for never doing things on the

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Speaker 1: cheap and thinking big. The emperor called on architect Jean

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Speaker 1: francoisterre Chel Grand, who had spent some years in Rome

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Speaker 1: and had previously worked on projects for Versailles and prominent churches.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps Napoleon and shell Gran were too ambitious in their proportions,

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Speaker 1: because this neoclassical arch took thirty years of albeit non

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Speaker 1: continuous work to complete. It took more than two years

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Speaker 1: just to lay the foundation. It wasn't finished when Napoleon

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Speaker 1: married his second wife in eighteen ten, so he had

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Speaker 1: a full size replica crafted from wood so that he

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Speaker 1: and his bride could pass under it. Neither Napoleon nor

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Speaker 1: Shelgrand saw the structure reach completion. Chelgrand died in eighteen

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Speaker 1: eleven and his former people Louis Robert Ghost took over

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Speaker 1: the project, but in eighteen fourteen Napoleon abdicated and work

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Speaker 1: on the structure slowed to a crawl, if not a standstill,

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Speaker 1: until his death in eighteen twenty one in exile on

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Speaker 1: the island of Saint Helena. In the meanwhile, the monarchy

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Speaker 1: was reinstated and King Louis the eighteenth resumed work on

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Speaker 1: the Arctetrionph in eighteen twenty three, with the project finally

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Speaker 1: being inaugurated in eighteen thirty six by King Louis Philippe.

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Speaker 1: Although Napoleon didn't get to see his completed Triumphal arc.

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Speaker 1: He did pass through it when his body was returned

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Speaker 1: to France in eighteen forty. It was passed under the

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Speaker 1: Octetrionph on the way to his final resting place under

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Speaker 1: the Hotel des Invellida. Pardon my literal French. By the way,

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Speaker 1: I never studied the language, and I'm trying. The Arc

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Speaker 1: de trientf sits along the historical axis of Paris, which

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Speaker 1: extends from the Louver Museum to the business district of

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Speaker 1: La de France, and it's not the only arch along

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Speaker 1: the axis. At one end, the arctatrionf du Carousela, which

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Speaker 1: was modeled on the Roman arches of Septimus and Constantine,

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Speaker 1: sits between the Louver and the tou Luris Garden. That

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Speaker 1: one is about a third of the size and was

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Speaker 1: also commissioned by Napoleon. At the far end of the axis,

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Speaker 1: La Grande Arche was built for the bisentennial of the

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Speaker 1: French Revolution in nineteen eighty nine. It stands as a

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Speaker 1: modernist monument to the hope of peace rather than the

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Speaker 1: triumph of war, and is more than double the size

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Speaker 1: of the Arctatrion. The Octatrioph itself includes many notable sculptures

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Speaker 1: with work by many prominent artists on the pillars. Other

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Speaker 1: surfaces bear additional reliefs in the names of generals and

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Speaker 1: battles a bedeth, the ark Are, the Tomb of the

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Speaker 1: Unknown Soldier, added in nineteen twenty one, and the Eternal Flame,

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Speaker 1: which is rekindled each evening, and due to its scale,

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Speaker 1: the Archtetrioph is known for offering one of the best

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Speaker 1: views of the city from the observation deck at the top,

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Speaker 1: reached by a spiral staircase. Today's episode is based on

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Speaker 1: the article how Napoleon's arquetrianph became a symbol of parrots

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Speaker 1: on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Kerry Whitney Brings Stuff.

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Speaker 1: This production of by Heart Radio in partnership with hostuffworks

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Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.