I read with interest your reader's note concerning the "Lion of Belfort" and did a little research to get some particulars on the structure. (See photo above. You can find this reproduction of the Belfort Lion in Paris! Search the web on Belfort Lion for even more info.)

The statue was completed in 1880 by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) who was born in Colmar in Alsace, France, to commemorate the valiant 103 day resistance by 17,000 Frenchmen in the Alsaceion town of Belfort to an attack on that city by 40,000 Prussian troops during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Prussians held the town under siege from December 1870 to February 1871 but were not able to take their objective. 

After an armistice between Germany and France was signed on February 15, 1871, the town was surrendered on February 18,1871, but it was never taken by force. Bartholdi sculpted the statue out of many individual blocks of pink and red sandstone cut from a hill which towers over the city of Belfort. These individual stones were then moved and assembled just below Belfort Castle into the famous Lion of Belfort. The statue is 22 meters long and 11 meters high and is built, on one side, into the castle or cliff wall so that it can be seen from three sides only. 

The statue was intended to face Prussia to the east to show Belfort's defiance of that country and its attack on the city but German protests caused the lion to be erected facing west. The bronze in the center of Denfert-Rochereau Square in Paris is a copy of the Belfort original. Bartholdi, the artist, was the sculptor who in 1865 conceived the idea of France giving the US a monument for its 1876 Centennial to commemorate France's aid to and support of the colonies during the American Revolution and America's successful quest for liberty. 

Bartholdi designed "Liberty Enlightening the World" and constructed the 450,000 lb. monument from copper plates attached to a steel armature which was designed by Gustave Eiffel who created the Eiffel Tower. The statue was completed in 1884 and shipped to the US where it was reassembled on Bedloe's Island in NY harbor and dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886, ten years after the Centennial. In 1956 Congress, with the approval of President Eisenhower, changed the name of the location to "Liberty Island".

From Ronald W. Rogers, provider of information relative to the 
Confederate Lion of Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia

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Clever Magazine has been investigating lion statues for years. If you're interested,  here's the list of articles on the subject so far: The Investigation begins ~ a San Francisco lion, Italian lions Lion Symbolism ~ Venice lions More Lions ~ US lions, postcard lions The Investigation continues ~ reader responses The Lion of Lucerne ~ the Swiss lion Lions in Paris ~ Paris photo essay Even more on Lions ~ a reader response Miscellaneous Lions ~ continuing the investigation More Paris Lions ~ further contributions to our growing lion statue archive Scott Beavin's Lion Photos ~ photos of Firenze Confederate Memorial Lion ~ a memorial to Confederate soldiers More lions ~ info about Belfort Lion and a few more photos Timmie's Lion Obsession, a photo essay If you have any lion photos or information to share, we'd love to hear from you.  Contact editor@clevermag.com For more information on Chinese Lion Statues, check out Greg Pringle's website We heard  from Maarten from The Netherlands, who photographs lion statues for his website, which is called Shooting Safari: Lions. Check it out!

Find it here!