Médaille souvenir collector Arc de triomphe

Description

Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have promised his soldiers that they would return marching in victory through the "triumphal arches" following the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805. On 15 August of the following year, the first stone was laid. With the fall of the Empire, construction was interrupted before being resumed under the first Restoration and completed thirty years later under the July monarchy. As soon as it was inaugurated in July 1836, this monument, already dear to the hearts of Parisians, became world famous thanks to an invention: the Daguerreotype! From the 1840s, its emblematic silhouette was reproduced on postcards and other brochures distributed throughout the world. The Arc de Triomphe remains to this day a place of history, memory and tourism, with over a million annual visitors.