Dome

View looking up from southeast (also depicts entire west elevation of square); Gondoin together with Jean-Baptiste Lepère (1761-1844), built the Vendôme Column (1806-1811), Paris, with its spiral reliefs on bronze plaques after cartoons by Pierre Nolasque Bergeret. Napoleon commissioned the original column, modelled after Trajan's Column, to celebrate the victory of Austerlitz; its veneer of 425 spiraling bas-relief bronze plates were made out of cannon taken from the combined armies of Europe, (according to his propaganda). The plates were executed by a team of sculptors including Bosio and Rude. The column was topped with a statue of Napoleon, destroyed, and then later replaced. The entire column was pulled down in 1871 and then restored and re-erected 1873. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/15/2010)