Column of the Goddess

About

The column of the goddess is a memorial, inaugurated on October 8, 1845, in the centre of the Grand'Place of Lille, today Place du Général-de-Gaulle, in the French department of the North in the Hauts-de-France region. The monument, which commemorates the heroism of the Lilles during the siege of Lille in 1792 by the imperial army, consists of a column and a statue of a woman at its top. She held in her right hand a fire, serving to light the wick of the cannons, and showed from the left the inscription of the base which resumed the answer of the mayor of Lille, François André-Bonte, refusing the surrender of the besieged city to the Imperials on 29 September 1792.

The statue of the Goddess at the end of the fire is a work by Theophile Bra, a customsian sculptor. The architect of the monument is Charles Benvignat. She took the popular column name of the Goddess shortly after her erection following a poem about her published locally.

At its base, it is surrounded by a fountain basin, of more recent design.