This 44m-high column is surrounded by a spiral made with the melted-down bronze of the 1 250 cannons captured at Austerlitz. On top is a statue of Napoleon I as Caesar: replaced by a huge fleur de lis and then by one of Bonaparte in military uniform. The column was torn down by the Commune upon the order of the painter Courbet, who, in 1873, was sent to prison and obliged to rebuild it at his own expense. A replica of the original statue is now at the top of the column.