Statue de Jeanne d’Arc

Jeanne d’Arc, France’s young beautiful virgin warrior heroine & patron saint. Was she a catholic messiah or perhaps a divinely inspired prophet?
Deeply religious, she claimed she had visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret & Saint Catherine. She believed that God had chosen her to lead France to victory during the Hundred Years’ War with England.
Having no military background, she convinced the crown prince, Charles of Valois, to let her lead the French army into battle. During which, at only 18 years of age & having been shot thru the neck with an arrow, she declared victory over the British at Orléans. After only 9 days the siege was lifted & she was nicknamed «la Pucelle d’Orleans» or the «maid of Orleans.»
You can see the original gilded bronze equestrian sculpture of the Saint Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) located at the Place des Pyramided in Paris, in the middle of the street high on a pedestal. It was inaugurated at this site in 1874 apparently where she was wounded during the battle to take back Paris.
Although she was not Beatified till 1909 at the Notre Dame in Paris by Pope Pius X & Canonized in 1920 at the St Peters Basilica Rome, Italy by Pope Benedict XV, she had long been considered one of history’s greatest saints.
Saint Jeanne d’Arc, is positioned high on that pedestal sitting proudly on horseback with flag raised charging into battle fearlessly. It’s impressive in shiny gold gilded bronze. When the sun hits it just right, it completely illuminates & seems as if it’s blazing a divine trail of fire, worthy of her strength, willpower & incredible courage. Regardless if the source was God or insanity, the end result was the salvation of France.
Tragically, Jeanne d’Arc, patron saint & national heroine of France, was captured by the English & put on trial by the English Bishop Pierre Cauchon. After Cauchon declared her guilty for witchcraft and heresy she was burned at the stake at Rouen in 1431. She was 19 years old.
Emmanuel Frémiet who sculpted the statue, is said to have chosen a young girl, Aimée Girod, from Jeanne d’Arc’s village in Domrémy, Lorraine that he used as the model during the making of this gorgeous piece of historic statuary.
Highly recommend.

A statue of Saint Joan worth visiting each time you are in Paris.
This statue of Joan of Arc for Paris was commissioned in 1874 by Napoleon III intended to help re-​establish French confidence after the humiliating military defeat of 1870 by the Prussian army.
Jeanne d’Arc — Timeline
1412 — Approx date of birth
1425 — Visions of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret, who told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Rheims for his coronation
1428, May — Went to Vaucouleurs to ask garrison commander, Count Robert de Baudricourt, to send her to the royal French court at Chinon, but is sent away.
1429, February — Baudricourt allows Jeanne to join the Dauphin at Chinon.
1429, May 8 — Lifting of the siege of Orleans
1429, July 17 — Coronation of Charles VII in Reims
1430, May 23 — Captured at Compiègne
1431, May 30 — Executed at Rouen
1871 — After the defeat of 1871, in many French towns and villages statues of Jeanne d’Arc are erected.
Frémiet was commissioned to make a monument in 1872 for the Place des Pyramides in Paris where Joan was wounded. Frémiet was never satisfied with his work. He thought the horse was not to the same scale as the rider. In 1889 the City of Nancy requested a reproduction of the statue. This gave him the opportunity to reduce the size of the horse and make a few other changes, including adding a muzzle to hide the horse’s head and removing the harness around the rear. When in 1899 the Paris statue was under threat by ongoing underground repairs to the street, Frémiet brought the sculpture back to his studio and began fixing his mistakes. He made Joan 20 cm taller and made the horse’s neck thinner, changed the forehead and removed the rear harness. — Although, it is also said that Frémiet sent the original Paris statue to Philadelphia (who commissioned a copy of the statue), and had replaced the Paris statue in 1899 with a revised one, rather than melting down and recasting as he claimed.
Saint Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc), The Maid of Orléans (ca. 1412 — 1431), national heroine of France, beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. She led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years’ War

A pretty cool statue of Jeanne d’Arc. What else to say?

Elle est superbe cette statue, dorée à souhait comme un bon croissant. Elle fut posée ici en 1874 et elle était supposée aider à rétablir la confiance des Français après la cuisante défaite de 1870. Le sculpteur Fremiet qui oeuvrait plutôt dans la sculpture animalière né sera pas satisfait de sa création, notamment du rapport de proportions entre la taille du cheval et celle de Jeanne d’Arc. Plus tard, il fera remplacer le cheval par un cheval plus petit, ce qui suscitera des critiques car certains estimaient qu’une création réservée au domaine public né devait pas être modifiée une fois qu’elle eût été installée.

J’aime beaucoup passer devant cette grande statue quand je me promèné rue de Rivoli, sauf que j’évite la procession de Mr Le Pen le 1er mai, je me demande encore comment on peut s’approprier une figure historique comme ça, enfin…
C’est une très belle statue pour une très grande dame, en plus les œuvres dorées sont assez rares aussi, à né pas rater.