Editing Paris Commune (section)

===Destruction of the Vendôme Column===

[[File:Souvenirs de la Commune de Paris, renversement de la colonne Vendôme, 1871.jpg|thumb|left|Toppling of the [[Vendôme Column]] on 16 May 1871. The column's destruction fulfilled an official proposition made the previous September by painter [[Gustave Courbet]]. After the end of the Commune, Courbet was sentenced to six months in prison and later ordered to pay for putting the column back up. He could never pay, and died soon after in exile]]

[[File:Colonne Vendôme à terre.jpg|thumb|Statue on the ground of Emperor Napoleon I, considered the symbol of imperial despotism]]

The destruction of the [[Vendôme Column]] honouring the victories of [[Napoleon I]], topped by a statue of the [[Emperor of the French|Emperor]], was one of the most prominent civic events during the Commune. It was voted on 12 April by the executive committee of the Commune, which declared that the column was "a monument of barbarism" and a "symbol of brute force and false pride." The idea had originally come from the painter [[Gustave Courbet]], who had written to the [[Government of National Defence]] on 4 September calling for the demolition of the column. In October, he had called for a new column, made of melted-down German cannons, "the column of peoples, the column of Germany and France, forever federated." Courbet was elected to the Council of the Commune on 16 April, after the decision to tear down the column had already been made. The ceremonial destruction took place on 16 May. In the presence of two battalions of the National Guard and the leaders of the Commune, a band played "[[La Marseillaise]]" and the "[[Chant du Départ]]". The first effort to pull down the column failed, but at 5:30 in the afternoon the column broke from its base and shattered into three pieces. The pedestal was draped with red flags, and pieces of the statue were taken to be melted down and made into coins.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=294–296}}

On 12 May a crowd organised by the Commune destroyed the residence of Adolphe Thiers, the leader of the Third Republic, on Place Saint-Georges. Proposed by Henri Rochefort, editor of the {{lang|fr|Le Mot d'Ordre}}, on 6 April, it was not voted upon by the Commune until 10 May.{{sfn|Milza|2009a|pp=296–298}}