The Grande Arche de la Fraternité is a monument in the business district of La Défense to the west of Paris. A monument is a structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of past La Défense is a major Business district for the city of Paris, bordering Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of the city itself Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city It is usually known as the Arche de la Défense or simply as La Grande Arche.
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Design and construction
An international design competition was launched at the initiative of French president François Mitterrand. François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand ( 26 October 1916 8 January 1996 served as President of France from 1981 to 1995 elected as representative of the Socialist Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen (1929–1987) designed the winning entry to be a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe: a monument to humanity and humanitarian ideals rather than military victories. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Johann Otto von Spreckelsen (May 4 1929 -- March 16 1987 was a Danish Architect. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris, France that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle also known as the Place de l'Étoile. Humanitarianism is an active belief in Humanism (the idea of the value of human life whereby Humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans The construction of the monument, which was undertaken, began in 1982. After Spreckelsen's death in 1987, his associate, French architect Paul Andreu, completed the work in 1989/90. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Paul Andreu (born July 10, 1938 in Caudéran / Gironde) is a renowned French Architect.
The Arche is almost a perfect cube (width: 108m, height: 110m, depth: 112m; it has been suggested that the structure looks like a four-dimensional hypercube (a tesseract) projected onto the three-dimensional world). In Physics and Mathematics, a sequence of n numbers can be understood as a location in an n -dimensional space In Geometry, a hypercube is an n -dimensional analogue of a square ( n = 2 and a Cube ( n = 3 Geometry The tesseract can be constructed in a number of different ways It has a prestressed concrete frame covered with glass and Carrara marble from Italy and was built by the French civil engineering company Bouygues. Prestressed concrete is a method for overcoming the Concrete 's natural weakness in tension. Glass in the common sense refers to a Hard, Brittle, transparent Solid, such as that used for Windows many Carrara is a City in the Province of Massa-Carrara ( Tuscany, Italy) famous for the white or blue-gray Marble quarried there Marble is a nonfoliated Metamorphic rock resulting from the Metamorphism of Limestone, composed mostly of Calcite (a crystalline form of Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Bouygues ( is a French industrial group listed on Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 Stock market index [1]
The nearly-completed Arche was inaugurated in July 1989, with grand military parades that marked the bicentenary of the French revolution. Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an It completed the line of monuments that forms the Axe historique running through Paris. The Axe historique ("historical axis" is a line of monuments buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the The Arche is turned at an angle of 6. 33° on this axis however, a peculiarity which has been explained by several theories. In particular, the architect is said to have wanted to emphasise the depth of the monument, while the specific angle was chosen to create symmetry with the similarly-skewed Louvre at the other end of the Axe. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France However, it seems the most important reason was mundanely technical. With a métro station, an RER station, and a motorway all situated directly underneath the Arche, the angle was the only way to accommodate the structure's giant foundations. The RER ( R éseau E xpress R égional, ɛʀøɛʀ "Regional Express Network" is a Rapid transit system in France serving
In addition, the Arche is placed so that it forms a secondary axe (axis) with the two highest buildings in Paris, the Tour Eiffel and the Tour Montparnasse. This page presents a list of the tallest skyscrapers buildings and structures in the Paris region, consisting of the inner Paris urban area ( Paris and neighboring The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel /tuʀ ɛfɛl/ is an Iron Tower built Tour Maine-Montparnasse ( Maine-Montparnasse Tower) also commonly named Tour Montparnasse, is a 210-meter (689 ft tall office Skyscraper located in
The two sides of the Arche house government offices. The roof section, exploited by Stephane Cherki, is an exhibition centre. The vertical structure visible in the photograph is the lift scaffolding. Impressive views of Paris are to be had from the lifts taking visitors to the roof.
In 1999, French urban climber Alain Robert scaled the structure's exterior wall using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices of any kind. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Alain Robert (born as Robert Alain Philippe on 7 August 1962 is a French rock and urban climber, from Digoin, Saône-et-Loire
In the 2004 film, Godzilla: Final Wars, it is one of the Parisian monuments destroyed by the giant insect Kamacuras. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " is the fiftieth anniversary film and the twenty-eighth film in the ''Godzilla'' film series. Showa In Son of Godzilla, a species of man-sized praying mantises lived on Sollgel Island
Access
| located near the metro station: La Défense - Grande Arche. The following is a list of all stations of the Paris Métro, sorted by lines La Défense is a station of the Paris Métro, RER, and Transilien suburban rail lines |
References
See also
External links
- Grande Arche (French and English)
- Satellite image from Google Maps
- Panoramas
- Grande Arche (in French)
- A virtual tour of the Grande Arche
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