Aux défenseurs de Belfort
To the defenders of Belfort
Le Lion de Belfort, sculpted by the Alsacian artist Auguste Bartholdi of Statue of Liberty fame, is a roaring 22 meters long and 11 meters high. The monument is installed at the base of a cliff in Belfort, just below splendid fortifications that were engineered by the Marquis de Vauban (1633-1707) during the reign of Louis XIV. Red sandstone blocks of the Vosges mountains were chiseled individually then assembled to form the gigantic lion which commemorates Belfort's 103-day resistance when under siege in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871.
Vocabulary
une falaise: a cliff
le grès: sandstone; also stoneware (pottery)
un défenseur: a defender
rugir: to roar
le rugissement: roar
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| Belfort on the map of France. |
©2012 P.B. Lecron
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