arc de triomphe

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A massive triumphal arch in Paris, one of its most famous monuments. It was conceived by Napoleon Bonaparte to celebrate France's victory against combined Austrian and Russian forces at Austerlitz in 1805.

Its full name is the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, and it those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I, which together with the United Kingdom's at Westminster Abbey in London were the first of their kind.

The arch stands at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile, the étoile or "star" being so named because it sits in the middle of a juncture formed by the Champs-Élysées and eleven other radiating streets.

See also