Following the victory of Austerlitz (1805), Napoleon I wished, like the Roman emperors, to pay tribute to the soldiers of the Grande Armée with the construction of a triumphal arch at the top of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées in Paris. As early as 1806, the architect Jean-François Chalgrin was inspired by the Arch of Titus in Rome, raised in 81 AD. Approved by Napoleon in 1809, Chalgrin’s project removed the Roman columns and gave the monument exceptional dimensions: 50 metres high, 45 metres long and 22 metres wide. So conceived, the Arc de Triomphe of Paris majestically closes the perspective of the Champs-Elysées.