The Universal Exhibition in Paris was held from May 15 to November 6, 1889 on the occasion of the centenary of the French Revolution. On the opening day, which was March 31, 1889, among the many attractions that were shown to the thousands of visitors to the exhibition, the astonished public could admire the famous 300-meter high tower built by the engineer Gustave Eiffel. (1832-1923). Since then, the Eiffel Tower became part of the Parisian landscape and became its most exalted symbol.
Two years before its inauguration, the first glimpses of the silhouette under construction were already showing in its early stages and the grandeur and dimensions of what was already imagined was going to be a giant about to awaken was perceived. However, at that time dissenting voices appeared that did not agree with the aforementioned artifact, expressing negative apostrophes and imprecations, considering the construction as a horrifying and unsightly mass of 18,000 pieces of iron.
Apenas se daba comienzo a las obras cuando artistas e intelectuales de renombre, entre ellos Alexandre Dumas, Sully Prudhomme Charles Gounod, Guy de Maupassant, Leconte de Lisle y los académicos franceses, comenzaron a manifestar su descontento y preocupación ante lo que ellos consideraban un exabrupto. Paul Verlaine protestaba por ese "esqueleto de atalaya" y Guy de Maupassant espetaba que la torre era una "pirámide alta y flaca de escalas de hierro, esqueleto gigante falto de gracia, cuya base parece hecha para llevar un monumento formidable de Cíclopes, aborto de un ridículo y delgado perfil de chimenea de fábrica" (Página web oficial de la torre Eiffel, 2021).
The works were barely beginning when renowned artists and intellectuals, including Alexandre Dumas, Sully Prudhomme Charles Gounod, Guy de Maupassant, Leconte de Lisle and the French academics, began to express their discontent and concern at what they considered an outburst. . Paul Verlaine protested this "watchtower skeleton" and Guy de Maupassant snapped that the tower was a "tall and skinny pyramid of iron scales, a graceless giant skeleton, the base of which seems made to carry a formidable monument of Cyclops, an abortion of a ridiculous slim factory chimney profile "(Official website of the Eiffel Tower, 2021).
Otros furibundos protestantes más se quejaban del "mástil de hierro de aparejos duros, inconclusos, confusos, deformes", de esa “alambrera infundibuliforme, este supositorio acribillado de hoyos" que indicaban la inconformidad y cólera ante la estética del enredado armatoste que atentaba contra la belleza de París.
Still other furious Protestants complained of the "iron mast with hard, unfinished, confused, deformed rigging", of that "infundibuliform wire mesh, this suppository riddled with holes" that indicated the disagreement and anger at the aesthetics of the tangled hulk that was attacking the beauty of Paris
El 14 de febrero de 1887 en Le Temps, se publica el célebre manifiesto cuando la torre todavía se elevaba en sobre los cielos de los Champs de Mars, donde habría de presentarse la Exposición Universal:
On February 14, 1887, in Le Temps, the famous manifesto was published when the tower still rose above the skies of the Champs de Mars, where the Universal Exhibition was to be presented:
"Nosotros, escritores, escultores, arquitectos, pintores, amantes apasionados de la belleza de París hasta ahora intacta, venimos a protestar con todas nuestras fuerzas, con toda nuestra indignación, en nombre del gusto francés anónimo, en nombre del arte y de la historia francesa amenazadas, contra la erección en pleno corazón de nuestra capital, de la inútil y monstruosa torre Eiffel, a la que la picaresca pública, a menudo poseedora de sentido común y espíritu de justicia, ya ha bautizado con el nombre de Torre de Babel. (...)”
¿La ciudad de París va a relacionar los más antiguos edificios barrocos con las mercantiles imaginaciones de un constructor de máquinas, para afearse irreparablemente y deshonrarse? (...). Basta imaginarse una torre vertiginosamente ridícula dominando París, así como una negra y gran chimenea de una fábrica, aplastante con su enorme masa. (...) todos nuestros monumentos humillados, toda nuestra arquitectura venida a menos, desapareciendo entre ese sueño asombroso.
Y durante veinte años veremos alargarse sobre toda la ciudad, todavía estremecida por el genio de tantos siglos, como una mancha de tinta, la odiosa sombra de la odiosa columna de hierro forjado".
(Página web oficial de la torre Eiffel, op. cit).
"We, writers, sculptors, architects, painters, passionate lovers of the beauty of Paris hitherto intact, come to protest with all our might, with all our indignation, in the name of anonymous French taste, in the name of art and history French women threatened, against the erection in the heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower, which the picaresque public, often possessing common sense and a spirit of justice, has already christened the Tower of Babel. (...) "
Is the city of Paris going to associate the oldest baroque buildings with the mercantile imaginations of a machine builder, to become irreparably ugly and dishonored? (...) Just imagine a dizzyingly ridiculous tower dominating Paris, as well as a great black factory chimney, crushing with its enormous mass. (...) all our monuments humiliated, all our architecture fallen into disrepair, disappearing into that amazing dream.
And for twenty years we will see stretching out over the entire city, still shaken by the genius of so many centuries, like an ink stain, the hateful shadow of the hateful wrought iron column. "
(Official website of the Eiffel Tower, op. cit).
Guy de Maupassant, uno de los firmantes del manifiesto, resolvió un día ir a almorzar frecuentemente en uno de los restaurantes de la torre Eiffel. Argumentaba que era el único sitio de la ciudad donde no se la veía.
Guy de Maupassant, one of the signers of the manifesto, decided one day to go for lunch frequently in one of the restaurants on the Eiffel Tower. He argued that it was the only place in the city where he was not seen.
Documentos consultados:
Página web oficial de la torre Eiffel. Nacimiento y construcción de la torre Eiffel. [Documento en línea] Disponible: https://www.toureiffel.paris/es/el-monumento. Consulta: 13-10-2021
Röhl, Juan (1971). Quinientas y unas pequeñas historias. Caracas: Monte Ávila.
Documents consulted:
Official website of the Eiffel Tower. Birth and construction of the Eiffel Tower. [Online document] Available: https://www.toureiffel.paris/es/el-monumento. Consultation: 13-10-2021
Röhl, Juan (1971). Five hundred and a few little stories. Caracas: Monte Avila.
Fuente de las imágenes
- https://pixabay.com/es/photos/torre-eiffel-trocadero-1161682/
- https://pixabay.com/es/photos/par%c3%ads-torre-eiffel-franciafranc%c3%a9s-843229/
- https://www.istockphoto.com/es/foto/par%C3%ADs-al-atardecer-gm1155913462-314862041
Source of the images