Is there any significance to the elephants shown frequently in the barricades during mid-19th century revolution in France? Is there evidence that there really were elephants?
The Elephant of the Bastille was a plaster model of a elephant commissioned by Napoleon. Originally a monument to Napoleon's adventures in Egypt, it was to be cast in bronze but due to the need of bronze for artillery and the fall of Napoleon, it would never come to be. The elephant would continue to exist and rot over time until the people of Paris complained about it's derogation.
