Eiffel Tower

Paris, France

The Eiffel Tower (La tour Eiffel) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, but has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world.

The tower is 324 metres tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Because of the addition of the aerial atop the Eiffel Tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Not including broadcast aerials, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second. The third level observatory's upper platform is 276 m above the ground, the highest accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift (elevator) to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. Although there are stairs to the third and highest level, these are usually closed to the public and it is generally only accessible by lift.

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Address

Avenue Gustave Eiffel 8, Paris, France
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Details

Founded: 1889
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More Information

www.history.com
en.wikipedia.org
www.toureiffel.paris
www.aviewoncities.com

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


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Place de la Concorde (2,1 km)
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (2,8 km)
Conciergerie (3,7 km)


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Basilica of St. Denis (9,8 km)
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Villa Savoye (20,8 km)
Château de Malmaison (9,5 km)

User Reviews

Crazy Thamizha (10 months ago)
Fantastic monument that everyone needs to see in their lifetime. Mind blowing architecture with restaurants and lifts on it. It has three floors. Entrance is free for everyone to roam around the Eiffel Tower but one has to pay to climb on it. Either you can take the stairs to climb or you can take the lift. One Adult has to pay 25 euros to go to the third and last floor of the Eiffel tower where you’ll get an awesome complete view of Paris. Worthy watch.
Amy Louise (10 months ago)
Iconic structure. Especially beautiful at night when lit up ☺
Mateusz Skorupski (10 months ago)
Magical place. Definitely best work of Gustave Eiffel. Trademark of Paris! Worth visiting at sunset, make sure to check out during light show, quite impressive! Even though queues are really long, the view from the top is breathtaking. If you're in Paris you have to see Eiffel Tower (at least be in the area). There are river tours nearby as well (great way to discover Paris bridges).
Geoffery Smith (11 months ago)
The Eiffel Tower is really cool. Our tour guide gave us so many historic details from when it was built to when they put in elevators. It’s very unique because it doesn’t fit into the skyline, but it is very intricately constructed. My daughter Samantha and I loved the view from the top, and the glass floor above ground. It also has gift shops. Just don’t buy from street vendors since it’s illegal. Buy from the legit shops. Anyways, this is one of my favorite places in all of Europe and it is a great setting with many views of the river, France’s Statue of Liberty, and the city across from Paris where there is a modern Arc de Triumph right in front of the old one. This is an absolutely fantastic place to go with family, friends, and even kids. It’s worth going to Paris just to go. Anyways, if you go anywhere in Europe, Paris is the most beautiful place you can visit. Please, please support this place by going there and getting a ticket.
ganesan ganesan (11 months ago)
Extremely breathtaking. Totally worth every minute. I never thought I would spend more than 3 hours in a place like this. But we did. We visited the first floor which has a restaurant, a cafe, and outdoor seating even in the winter. It's an igloo type of seating area to shield you from the cold. The restaurant doesn't open until dinner time. So we didn't get to eat there. In the second floor, it is very high up. We enjoyed the sights since we got there right before sundown and stayed until dark. They also have a cafe in the second floor, the coffee was good, and the macaroons were to die for. When we went to the first floor we went down the steps from the Second Floor, it wasn't that bad since it was going downhill , but on the way back up they told us we couldn't go up the elevator again so we had to go up the steps, that was a hike. The light show started at 6 p.m. And then every hour on the hour after that.
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Wawel Castle

Wawel Hill – a Jurassic limestone rock, a dominant feature in the landscape of Kraków, have provided a safe haven for people who have settled here since the Paleolithic Age. It is supposed that the Slav people started living on Wawel hill as early as the 7th century. Early medieval legends tell stories about a dreadful dragon that lived in a cave on Wawel Hill, about his slayer Krakus, and about the latter’s daughter Wanda, who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German knight. Towards the end of the first millennium A.D Wawel began to play the role of the centre of political power.In the 9th century it became the principal fortified castrum of the Vislane tribe. The first historical ruler of Poland, Miesco I (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslas the Brave (992-1025) and Miesco II (1025-1034) chose Wawel Hill as one of their residences.

At that time Wawel became one of the main Polish centres of Christianity. The first early Romanesque and Romanesque sacral buildings were raised here, including a stone cathedral that was erected after the bishopric of Kraków was established in the year 1000.

During the reign of Casimir the Restorer (1034-1058) Wawel became a significant political and administrative centre for the Polish State. Casimir’s son, Boleslas the Bold (1058-1079) began the construction of a second Romanesque cathedral, which was finished by Boleslas the Wrymouth (1102-1138). In his last will of 1138, this prince divided Poland into districts, and provided that Kraków was to be the residence of the senior prince. In 1291 the city of Kraków along with Wawel Hill temporarily fell under the Czech rule, and Wenceslas II from the Premysl dynasty was crowned King of Poland in Wawel cathedral.

In 1306 the Duke of Kuyavia Ladislas the Short (1306-1333) entered Wawel and was crowned King of Poland in the Cathedral in 1320. It was the first historically recorded coronation of a Polish ruler on Wawel Hill. Around that time, at the initiative of Ladislas the Short, the construction of the third Gothic cathedral began, the castle was expanded and the old wooden and earthen fortifications were replaced by brick ones. The tomb of Ladislas the Short in the cathedral started a royal necropolis of Polish kings in Krakow.The last descendant of the Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great (1333-1370) brought Wawel to a state of unprecedented splendour. In 1364 the expanded gothic castle witnessed the marriage of Casimir’s granddaughter Elizabeth to Charles IV accompanied by a famous convention of kings and princes, subsequently entertained by a rich burgher Wierzynek. The accession to the throne in 1385 of Jadwiga from the Hungarian dynasty of Andegavens, and her marriage to a Lithuanian prince Ladislas Jagiello (1386-1434) started another era of prosperity for Wawel. The royal court employed local and western European artists and also Rus painters. During the reign of Casimir Jagiellon (1447-1492) the silhouette of the hill was enriched by three high brick towers: the Thieves’ Tower, the Sandomierz Tower and the Senatorial Tower. The first humanists in Poland and tutors to the king’s sons: historian Jan Długosz and an Italian by the name Filippo Buonacorsi (also known as Callimachus) worked there at that time.

The Italian Renaissance arrived at Wawel in the early 16th century. King Alexander (1501-1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) commissioned the construction of a new palace in place of the Gothic residence, with an impressive large courtyard with arcaded galleries which was completed about 1540. Sigismund’s patronage also left an indelible impression in the cathedral, where a family chapel was erected, known today as Sigismund’s Chapel - the work of Bartolomeo of Berrecci Florence, and through various foundations, one of which was that of a large bell, called the Sigismund to commemorate the king. Close artistic and cultural relations with Italy were strengthened in 1518 by the king’s marriage to Bona Sforza. Alongside Italian artists, German architects, wood workers, painters and metal smiths worked for the king. The last descendant of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), enriched the castle’s interiors with a magnificent collection of tapestries woven in Brussels. In the “Golden Age” of Polish culture Wawel became one of the main centres of humanism in Europe.

The reign of Sigismund III Waza (1587-1632) also made a strong impression on the history of Wawel. After a fire in the castle in 1595 the king rebuilt the burned wing of the building in the early Baroque style. The relocation of the royal court to Warsaw was the cause of a slow but nevertheless steady deterioration in the castle’s condition. The monarchs visited Kraków only occasionally. Restoration of the castle was undertaken during the reign of John III Sobieski, the Wettins and Stanislas Augustus to counteract neglect.

After Poland had lost its independence in 1795, the troops of partitioning nations, Russia, Prussia and Austria, subsequently occupied Wawel which finally passed into the hands of the Austrians. The new owners converted the castle and some of the secular buildings into a military hospital, and demolished some others, including churches. After the period of the Free City of Kraków (1815-1846) Wawel was once more annexed by Austria and turned into a citadel dominating the city. By the resolution passed by the Seym of Galicia in 1880, the castle was presented as a residence to the Emperor of Austria Franz Josef I. The Austrian troops left the hill between 1905-1911. At the turn of the 20th century a thorough restoration of the cathedral was conducted, and shortly afterwards a process of restoration of the royal castle began which lasted several decades.

When Poland regained its independence in 1918, the castle served as an official residence of the Head of State, and as a museum of historic interiors. During the Nazi occupation the castle was the residence of the German governor general, Hans Frank. Polish people managed to remove the most valuable objects, including the tapestries and the “Szczerbiec” coronation sword to Canada, from where they returned as late as 1959-1961. At present, the main curators of Wawel are Wawel Royal Castle – State Art Collection and the Metropolitan Basilica Board on Wawel Hill.

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