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Origin and history

The memorial pyramid of the Battle of Ivry, located at Épieds in the Eure, is an obelisk erected at the beginning of the 19th century to mark the place where Henry IV fell asleep after his victory on 14 March 1590 against the Duke of Mayenne during the Wars of Religion. This monument replaces a first pyramid built in 1758 by the Count of Eu, itself replaced in 1777 by an obelisk commanded by the Duke of Penthièvre, destroyed in 1798. Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, ordered in 1804 the construction of the present obelisk, whose original inscriptions disappeared in 1814 after his abdication.

The monument, ranked among the first historical monuments in 1862, was overthrown by the storm of 1999 and restored in 2000. Today, he stands at the end of an alley of linden trees on a hill of Épieds, recalling a key episode of the Wars of Religion. According to the local tradition, it marks the exact location where Henry IV fell asleep after the battle, under an inner pear tree, a symbol still mentioned in the historical accounts.

The history of this monument reflects the political upheavals of France: from its creation under the Ancien Régime to its destruction during the Revolution, then its reconstruction under Napoleon. Its simple architecture, that of an obelisk once surmounted by a flower of lilies, contrasts with its symbolic importance, linked to the legend of Henri IV and to national memory.

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