Eiffel Tower of Interests

The Eiffel Tower of curiosities – a symbol of Paris, but also of the whole of France. The controversial building at that time was scheduled to disappear after 20 years. Discover the curiosities about this unique building…
The originator of the tower on the Seine was not Gustave Eiffel, but his two employees Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier. Their project was announced on 18 September 1884. Four months later, copyright and intellectual property rights were redeemed by Eiffel. Construction began in 1887 and was managed by Koechlin.
The second tower was built on the occasion of the Paris World Exhibition (the official opening took place on 31 March 1889) – its main task was to present France as a modern, technologically advanced and engineering country, ready to be a European leader in the coming twentieth century. When the construction was completed in 1889, it was assumed that the whole structure would be dismantled after 20 years.
At the time of commissioning, the Eiffel Tower was not only the highest tower in France, but also in the world, until 1930 when 40 Wall Street (also known as the Trump Building) was completed in New York. However, after 28 days, the title went to another New York building, the Chrysler Building. Interestingly, today the Eiffel Tower is larger than these skyscrapers, thanks to the mounted on top antenna measures 324 meters. Currently, it is ranked fifth in terms of construction height in France.
4th In its history, the tower was also the largest billboard in the world. Between 1925 and 1936, more than four million colourful light bulbs were installed on three sides of the tower, forming a vertical inscription of the French company Citroen. The advertisement was visible from a distance of more than 30 kilometres.
Although the Eiffel Tower is now the symbol of Paris, at that time its construction was very controversial. In 1887, the “Le Temps” newspaper published an open letter of 300 outstanding artists and intellectuals from the French capital. Their manifesto printed on Valentine’s Day sounded:
We writers, painters, sculptors, architects and enthusiasts of the so far untouched beauty of Paris protest – on behalf of the endangered French art and history – against the erection of an unnecessary and monstrous Eiffel Tower in the very heart of our capital, which with its barbaric enormity overwhelms Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Tour Saint-Jacques…”.
The words of the writer Guy de Maupassant, who was a daily guest at the restaurant in the tower, will surely be remembered forever because “it’s the only place you can’t see it from”. He later announced that he was forced to leave the capital because the building itself had a negative effect on him.
According to the wishes of the creator, the tower should be painted on average every 7 years. Since the beginning of its creation, the tower has been painted 18 times. Once the tower became yellow, nowadays it shimmers in brown. During the renovation works, 60 tons of paint, 50 km of protective cables, 5 hectares of protective net, 1500 brushes, 1500 sets of clothing, while the whole process of painting the tower for 25 painters takes more than a year.