Colonne de Juillet

Rising from the centre of the Place de la Bastille, this bronze column commemorates the revolution of July 1830 that overthrew the restored monarchy. A gilded figure known as the Genius of Liberty, poised on one foot with a torch and broken chains, crowns its summit and has become a symbol of the square. The names of citizens killed in the uprising are inscribed on the shaft, and a crypt beneath holds their remains. It stands on the former site of the fortress-prison stormed in 1789.