Pont de l'Alma — The Zouave Flood Statue

The Zouave statue on the Pont de l'Alma in Paris is a 5.2-meter-tall stone monument created in 1856 that serves as the city's traditional flood gauge for the River Seine. Sculpted by Georges Diebolt, the eight-tonne figure commemorates the 1854 Battle of the Alma. While three companion statues were relocated during a 1970s bridge reconstruction, the Zouave remained because Parisians rely on it to measure rising floodwaters.

Paris · from the walk “From the Cathedral to the Iron Lady” · audio ~4 min · Generated

Pont de l'Alma, Paris

How is the Zouave statue on the Pont de l'Alma used to measure floods in Paris?

Look down over the railing, and you will see him... a stone soldier standing at the waterline, leaning on his rifle, gazing downriver. He has been here for nearly one hundred and seventy years. But who IS this man, and why does all of Parispari watch his feet every winter?......... This is the Zouave of the Pont de l'Alma. He was sculpted in eighteen fifty-six by Georges Diebolt, a brilliantly talented artist from Dijon who won the prestigious Prix de Rome at just twenty-five... and died tragically at only forty-five. The bridge was inaugurated that same year by Emperor Napoleon the Third, named after the Battle of the Alma, the very first major clash of the Crimean War. On September twentieth, eighteen fifty-four, French Zouave soldiers did something the Russians thought impossible. They swam across the Alma River, then Scaled sheer cliffs — fifty meters high — that the Russian commander Prince Menshikov had left undefended because he believed no army could climb them. The Zouaves proved him spectacularly wrong.......... Now, look at the statue's uniform. That fez, the short jacket without buttons, the baggy trousers — that is the distinctive North African costume of the Zouave regiments, originally Algerian units that became legendary in the French army.......... The statue stands five point two meters tall and weighs eight tonnes. But here is the fascinating part. He was originally one of Four soldiers guarding this bridge — a Zouave, a grenadier, an artilleryman, and a chasseur. When the old stone bridge was demolished and rebuilt in the nineteen seventies, three of his companions were sent away... the grenadier to Dijon, the artilleryman to La Fère, and the chasseur to Vincennes. Only the Zouave stayed. Why? Because Parisians Refused to lose their favorite flood gauge.......... You see, there is a tradition here. When the Seine rises and touches his feet... the riverbanks close. When the water reaches his thighs... all boat traffic stops. And in January nineteen ten, during the Great Flood... the water rose eight point six two meters. It reached his Shoulders. Paris became Venice for thirty-five days. People rowed boats down the boulevards. Over fourteen thousand buildings flooded, including the National Assembly.......... Even today, the official flood measurements are taken at the Pont d'Austerlitz. But Parisians? They still look to their Zouave. He even has his own social media account, posting updates when the river gets moody. A stone soldier from the Crimean War... still standing guard over Paris, one flood at a time.