Architect Jean-Francois Chalgrin designed the Arc in 1806, drawing inspiration from the Arch of Titus in Rome but scaling it to Napoleonic ambition. Laying the foundations alone took two years. Chalgrin died in 1811, and construction stalled during the Bourbon Restoration, not resuming until 1823. Three successive architects completed it over the following thirteen years. The result is colossal: 50 meters high, 45 meters wide, and 22 meters deep, with a main vault nearly 30 meters tall. It was the world's tallest triumphal arch until Mexico City's Monumento a la Revolucion surpassed it in 1938. The four sculptural groups at its base include Francois Rude's thundering La Marseillaise -- formally titled The Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 -- whose winged Liberty has become one of France's most recognizable images.

The Arc's walls record 660 officers' names and 158 battles from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Generals killed in action have their names underlined. But the monument's meaning has expanded far beyond Napoleonic glory. In 1840, Napoleon's remains passed beneath its vault on their way to Les Invalides. In 1885, Victor Hugo lay in state under the arch before his burial in the Pantheon. The Germans marched through in 1871 and again in 1940. The French and Allies liberated Paris through its shadow in 1944. Since 1919, however, military parades have marched up to the arch and around it rather than through it -- a custom observed by both Hitler and de Gaulle -- out of respect for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier interred beneath its vault in 1920.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was originally planned for the Pantheon, but a public letter-writing campaign redirected it to the Arc. An anonymous French soldier from World War I was interred on Armistice Day 1920, with the eternal flame lit on November 11, 1923. Every evening at 6:30 PM, the flame is rekindled in a ceremony that has continued unbroken since -- through the German Occupation, through the cold war, through every upheaval France has weathered. The tomb transformed the Arc from a celebration of military victory into something more universal: a place of mourning for the unnamed dead of all wars. A ceremony is held every November 11, and plaques at the monument's base commemorate the Republic's proclamation, the return of Alsace and Lorraine, the Resistance, and de Gaulle's appeal of June 18, 1940.

From the air, the Arc's setting is more striking than the monument itself. It sits at the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle -- formerly the Place de l'Etoile, named for the star-shaped pattern formed by twelve radiating avenues. The paving stones trace stellar lines pointing toward the center of each avenue, a geometric design visible from any altitude. The Arc anchors the Axe historique, a monumental line stretching from the Louvre's courtyard through the Tuileries, up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc, and onward to the Grande Arche de la Defense. In 1919, pilot Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport sesquiplane through the main vault -- an audacious stunt captured on newsreel, undertaken three weeks after the victory parade. The pilot originally assigned to the feat, Jean Navarre, had died training for it.

The Arc continues to accumulate meaning. In 1998, when France won the FIFA World Cup, Zinedine Zidane's image was projected onto its facade. In 2018, yellow vest protesters sprayed graffiti on the monument and ransacked its museum. In September 2021, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude's long-planned posthumous project finally wrapped the entire arch in silvery blue fabric and red rope, transforming the familiar silhouette into something strange and dreamlike for sixteen days. The fabric came down, the stone reappeared, and the Arc went back to being what it has been for nearly two centuries: the place where France gathers to celebrate, to mourn, and to argue about what it means to be French.