Statue de Jeanne D'arc à cheval

Thanks to a donation from Saint-Amé industrialist Napoléon Marchal, an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc by Mathurin Moreau was erected on the north-west summit of the Ballon. His original plan was to install it on the Evaux rock, overlooking the Charbonniers valley on the western slope. But access to the site proved impossible for such a sculpture. It was inaugurated on September 19, 1909 in the presence of a crowd of several thousand people. It had taken three pairs of oxen to raise the three-ton statue from Saint-Maurice sur Moselle to this height. In the end, it was placed on the Jumenterie thatch, still overlooking the Charbonniers valley, but on the eastern slope. Mathurin Moreau, an ardent patriot, intended to challenge Prussia, which had annexed Lorraine, and so comfort the hearts of the many Lorraine and Alsace inhabitants who had come to settle in the Moselle valley after the defeat of 1871. Joan of Arc looked to France, seemingly calling on the mother country to come and liberate the lost provinces. When this was done, in 1918, the statue was turned eastwards, no longer towards ?the hereditary enemy? but towards a united and finally peaceful Europe. Moved for its 50th anniversary, the statue was struck by lightning. Repaired in Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle, it is now back in place at an altitude of 1,242 m, still looking towards Germany.