Bastille July Column

This column in the center of the Place de la Bastille is dedicated not to the July 14, 1789 storming of the Bastille Prison that started the French Revolution, but to the July 1830 revolution that deposed King Charles X and installed the "citizen-king" Louis-Philippe.  The Colonne de Juillet (July Column) was built starting in 1831, and was inaugurated on July 28, 1840, the tenth anniversary of the 1830 revolution, in a ceremony featuring music by Hector Berlioz.  The 47-meter (154-foot) Corinthian column is topped by Auguste Dumont's gilded statue Genie de la Liberte (Spirit of Freedom) and French tricolor flags.