La Défense de Paris

The location for the statue was the place where soldiers of the French National Guard were assembled before the Battle of Buzenval on 19 January 1871, in the last effort of the defenders to break out of the siege of Paris.

Barrias designed a sculptural group of three figures to symbolise the defence of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War: a woman standing in the uniform of the National Guard and with a mural crown on her head, leaning on a cannon and holding a flag, symbolises the city of Paris; on the ground in front, a young soldier loading his Chassepot rifle represents the service of the military; and to the rear, a sad young woman represents the suffering of the civil population.

It was mounted on a tall plinth that was already in place, and which had previously supported a Statue of Napoleon [fr] by Charles Émile Seurre, which had itself been erected atop the Colonne Vendôme from 1833 to 1863, until moved to Puteaux as the centrepiece of the new Rond-Point de l’Empereur.

The statue was unveiled on 12 August 1883 by Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau, French Minister of the Interior, with a 21 gun salute and a military parade, observed by an audience estimated at 100,000.

The buildings of the Établissement public pour l'aménagement de la région de la Défense [fr] (EPAD) and the Centre des nouvelles industries et technologies (CNIT) were constructed nearby from 1958, with early examples including the Nobel Tower and the Esso Tower.