L'Âme de la France

About

The Soul of France is a work by the French sculptor Carlo Sarrabezolles, consisting of three identical monumental statues that he made in three different materials during the Entre-deux-guerres. The first plaster sculpture dates from 1921, the second stone sculpture from 1922 and the last bronze sculpture from 1930. At a height of 3.20 meters, they represent a warrior with bare breasts raising her arms towards the sky.

Made from the first model, the most recent sculpture is currently installed on a pedestal at the entrance to Hell-Bourg, in the Upper Reunion Island, overseas department of the Indian Ocean. It was offered by the deputy for Réunion Lucien Gasparin to the municipality of Salazie in 1931 and since then has traversed the history of Réunion in a chaotic way. First erected in the small town center in front of the town hall, it is quickly debunked to dynamite by the parish priest, then successively preserved in pieces behind a hair salon, repaired by welding and finally moved from a few kilometers to the place where it is still today.

There, it is again torn from its base, this time by a tropical cyclone...