Henry IV of France

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Equestrian statue of King Henry IV of France, Pont Neuf
Copy from a surviving cast of the original by François-Frédéric Lemot, 1818
(The original by Giambologna and Pietro Tacca was destroyed in 1792)
Île de la Cité
Quartier Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, 1st arrondissement
Paris, July 2010

“On Sunday the 12th, at about noon, the equestrian statue, in bronze, of Henry IV. which was on the Pont-neuf, was pulled down; this was erected in 1635, and was the first of the kind in Paris. The horse was begun at Florence, by Giovanni Bologna, a pupil of Michael Angelo, finished by Pietro Tacca, and sent as a present to Mary of Medicis, widow of Henry IV, Regent. It was shipped at Leghorn, and the vessel which contained it was lost on the coast of Normandy, near Havre de Grace, the horse remained a year in the sea, it was, however, got out and sent to Paris in 1614.” (Richard Twiss, A Trip to Paris in July and August, 1792)