It was 230 years ago, to the day. Louis XVI, the last king of the Ancien Régime, was guillotined on what is now Place de la Concorde. A major episode of the French Revolution which subjugated the whole of Europe. Five months earlier, the overthrow of the monarch by the capture of the Tuileries had triggered a vast movement to dismantle royal statues. In Paris as in the provinces, representations of Louis XVI disappeared forever. Well almost. Four statues homage to the famous husband of Marie-Antoinette, all sculpted after her death, have managed to survive the Republican periods while remaining intact. And only two, largely unknown, are still exhibited in the public space.
The most spectacular is in the city center of Nantes, 25 m high, at the top of a stone column dominating the Place Maréchal-Foch, a stone’s throw from the cathedral. Louis XVI is represented there as a Roman emperor. An idea from a group of architects, including Mathurin Crucy, who commissioned the work in 1788. “Except there were plenty of twists and turns,” says Marion Orillard, curator Nantes History Museum. The column was erected in 1791 but, with the Flight of Louis XVI to Varennes, the project for a statue of the king is abandoned and replaced by an allegory of Liberty, which will never succeed for lack of money. Then a statue of Napoleon with eagles is, for a time, evoked on the occasion of the Emperor’s visit to Nantes in 1808.
“Finally, the return of the monarchy in 1814 revived the initial project, continues Marion Orillard. It will take time, but the statue of the king, made by the Franco-Austrian sculptor Dominique Molknecht, was inaugurated in 1823.” Curiously, it remained as it was, despite a few episodes of tension. “Since then, this square has been nicknamed “Place Louis XVI” by the inhabitants of Nantes. The statue is part of the landscape but few people know its history, or even know that its presence is a rarity in France,” remarks Anne Bouillé, head of the conservation department at the History Museum. Every January 21, some royalists still come to celebrate the memory of the “martyr king”.
Shelter after damage
20 kilometers from Nantes, it is in front of the church of the commune of Loroux-Bottereau (Loire-Atlantique) crowned by another standing statue of Louis XVI. Inaugurated in 1822, it too was shaped by Molknecht. “She had been ordered to Restoration to honor the return of the monarchy in a city deeply marked by the Wars of Vendée [qui ont opposé royalistes et républicains entre 1793 et 1800] », says Laurence Plessix, tour guide.
Easily accessible, the statue of the King of France has however suffered numerous damage from opponents. So much so that a resin copy had to be made at the end of the 1990s. “It is this copy that is on the square. The original was sheltered in a municipal building”, indicates Laurence Plessix, who notes that “the inhabitants pass in front of the monument every day without paying particular attention to it”.
A symbol that has become very cumbersome
A third statue of Louis XVI on a pedestal had been sculpted by Molknecht. She is in the park of the castle of Caradeuc, in Bécherel (Ille-et-Vilaine). But, unlike its sisters in Nantes and Loroux-Bottereau, it is only visible in summer. His CV is no less surprising. “Originally, it had been commissioned to dress the niche of the town hall of Rennes, says Cécile de Kernier, owner of the castle. But, when it was finished, in 1830, the time had changed and the city preferred to store it” in the museum of fine arts. Cumbersome, the statue was lent to the park of Caradeuc in 1950. As a symbol, it turns out that it was Louis XVI who had erected a marquis a certain Louis-René Caradeuc, the family ancestor then in exile. “It was therefore very difficult to refuse this statue,” smiles Cécile de Kernier.
Far from Brittany, a statue of Louis XVI also exists in the town of Soreze (Tarn). It is located precisely in the garden of the former Benedictine abbey, which became a royal military school under Louis XVI. The private school closed in 1991 and the site now houses two museums. Installed near a riding quarry, the statue, of which little is known, is only accessible on the dates and times when visits are open.
In addition, an imposing statue of Louis XVI has long remained in downtown Louisville (United States), the largest city in Kentucky. Dating from 1827, it was originally made for the city of Montpellier, which never really dared to exhibit it. It was then offered to Louisville in 1967, as part of a pairing, before being finally withdrawn in 2020victim of acts of vandalism in a context of racial tensions.