Le Zouave

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The “Zouave” by Georges Diebolt
Pont de l'Alma
Paris, July 2010

“The ‘Zouave’ is an 1856 stone statue by French artist Georges Diebolt, which has been sited on the Pont de l'Alma in Paris since the 1850s. The statue is used as an informal flood marker for the level of the River Seine in Paris. An arch bridge over the Seine was first constructed at this location in Paris in the 1850s, connecting the Avenue George V (formerly the Avenue d'Alma) to the Quai d'Orsay and Quai Branly. The new bridge was named after the 1854 Battle of Alma in the Crimean War. The two supporting piers of the bridge in the river were decorated with military sculptures, one on each side of each pier. Each of the four sculptures depicts a French soldier from the Crimean War: a Zouave and a grenadier by Georges Diebolt, and a chasseur and an artilleryman by Auguste Arnaud. Three of the four statues on the Pont de l'Alma were removed and relocated when the bridge was reconstructed as a wider girder bridge in the 1970s, but the ‘Zouave’ was reinstalled on the new bridge, although in a somewhat lower position.” (Zouave, Wikipedia)