Twenty three statues line the façade of Gare du Nord, each one representing a city once served by the Chemin de Fer du Nord railway company.
They were commissioned in 1861 by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff from 13 prominent sculptors of the time.
The largest figures, at 5.5 meters tall, crown the building and represent the major international destinations: London, Berlin, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Vienna, Cologne, and Brussels. Above them all, at the very top of the façade, stands a statue of Paris itself, a reminder that every one of these lines radiated outward from the capital.
The smaller ones, placed in front of the glass windows, represent national destinations. From left to right: Boulogne, Compiègne, Saint-Quentin, Cambrai, Beauvais, Lille, Amiens, Rouen, Arras, Laon, Calais, Valenciennes, Douai, and Dunkirk.
The sculptors behind the statues :
Pierre-Jules Cavelier: Paris, Compiègne, Boulogne-sur-Mer
Auguste Ottin: Cambrai, Saint-Quentin
Gustave Crauk: Douai, Dunkerque
Henri Lemaire: Calais, Valenciennes
Charles-François Leboeuf: Lille, Beauvais
Théodore-Charles Gruyère: Laon, Arras
Eugène-Louis Lequesne: Amiens, Rouen
Jean-Joseph Perraud: Berlin
François Jouffroy: Bruxelles, Varsovie
Jean-Louis Jaley: Vienne, Londres
Charles Gumery: Amsterdam
Gabriel-Jules Thomas: Francfort
Mathurin Moreau: Cologne
The statues have had a few brushes with fame of their own: they show up in the background of films like Amélie and Ocean’s Twelve. They also went through a full restoration between 2008 and 2010, after decades of exposure had taken their toll on the stone.
