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Origin and history

The statue of Louis XIV in Lyon is a bronze work by François-Frédéric Lemot in the 19th century, inaugurated in 1825 on Place Bellecour. It replaces a first equestrian statue of Martin Desjardins, erected in 1713 and melted in 1792 during the Revolution to be transformed into cannons. Lemot is inspired by the statue of Marc Aurelius, representing the king without calipers, mounted "to the Roman". The marble base of Carrara, decorated with two allegories of the Coustou brothers (the Rhône and the Saône), was restored in 2024 after a year of work.

The original statue of Desjardins, commissioned to celebrate the acquisition of Place Bellecour by the city in 1708 thanks to Louis XIV, was destroyed in 1792. The allegories of the Rhône and the Saône, spared, were placed at the Town Hall before being transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts in 2021. Lemot, renowned sculptor (also author of the Henri IV of Pont Neuf in Paris), designed the new statue with the architect Hurtault. His transport from Paris in 1825, fired by 20 horses, cost the life of a worker, compensated by the prefect.

In 1966, a box discovered under the statue revealed a "treasure": gold coins, medals, and a medallion of Louis XVIII, confirming the archives. In 2023, a major restoration (1.45 M€) revealed a sealed tube in the horse's head, probably containing the opening speech of 1825. The statue, weighing 9 tons for 5.2 meters high, is a Lyon symbol, nicknamed the Bronze Horse. Les Lyonnais traditionally meet "under the tail of the horse".

Ranked a Historic Monument in 2016, the statue was dismantled in 2023 for restoration, revealing cracks and critical oxidation. Coubertin's Foundry repaired the bronze, applied a protective patina, and replaced a slab of the base. The allegories of Coustou, exposed to the weather since 1721, were restored and permanently installed at the Museum of Fine Arts in 2022. The statue was raised in April 2024, returning to its central place in Lyon.

Two urban legends surround the monument: Lemot would have committed suicide for forgetting the calipers (he died naturally in 1827), and he would have been made Knight of the Legion of Honor for this work (it was in 1816). Didier Repellin, the restaurant supervisor, greeted his "absolute masterpiece", highlighting the realism of details such as the fringes of the king's skirt or the horse's carpet.

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