Paris contains the Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to honor the French army.
Napoleon ordered the monument after his victory at Austerlitz. Construction began in 1806, but the project was not completed until 1836, long after Napoleon’s fall. Architects Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin and Jean-Arnaud Raymond worked on the design.
The arch stands at the western end of the Champs-Élysées in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly called the Place de l’Étoile. Twelve major avenues radiate from the square, creating one of Paris’s most recognizable urban layouts.
The monument bears the names of 660 generals and 128 battles from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, added in 1921, lies beneath it, and its eternal flame has burned since 1923.