G vozdena kula, moderno čudo genijalnog Gistava Ajfela, u maju će proslaviti 130 godi- na od otvaranja, pa se vraća- mo u to vreme, u davnu 1889. godinu, kada je Francuska slavila 100. godi- šnjicu revolucije, a Ajfel poklonio Pari- zu svoje čedo. Čedo koje je postalo ču- do, zapravo najposećeniji spomenik za koji se plaća ulaznica na celom svetu. A nije tako bilo na početku. Pariski umetnici, slikari, pesnici, arhitekte pisali su peticije protiv mon- struozne kule, gvozdenog čudovišta, i protestovali „protiv podizanja jedne ne- potrebne i čudovišne, sramotno smešne kule, koja će dominirati Parizom poput kakvog divovskog, crnog dimnjaka čije će prisustvo poniziti arhitekturu...“, pi- sali su umetnici, među kojima i Gi de Mopasan. Istina, on je jedini ostao do- sledan svom preziru prema kuli, čak i kada se mišljenje mnogih promenilo i ona postala senzacija. Mopasan je na- stavio da svakodnevno ruča u Ajfelo- vom restoranu jer je to bilo jedino me- sto sa kojeg nije morao da gleda mrski
Kad je Svetska izložba završena, nije bilo baš previše turista koji su bili zain- teresovani za obilazak, pa je njeno ruše- nje bilo planirano za 1909. godinu. Me- đutim, u međuvremenu je na poslednji sprat postavljena meteorološka stanica, a korišćena je i za uspostavljanje tele- grafske veze, što je bilo naročito kori- sno u vreme Prvog svetskog rata, kada su Francuzi uspeli da presretnu brojne nemačke poruke i čak uhapse čuvenu Matu Hari. Tako je kula preživela, da bi ponovo bila ugrožena kada su nacisti ušli u Pariz 1940. Francuzi su presekli sve kablove liftova na kuli kako bi ne- prijatelj morao da ide peške, a liftovi ni- su popravljeni sve do 1946. Ipak, ne tre- ba zaboraviti da je toranj spasao jedan Nemac, general Ditrih fon Holtic, koji je odbio Hitlerovu naredbu da ga srav- ni sa zemljom. Kula je tokom godina bila korisna za naučnike, obavljali su se razni ekspe- rimenti, ostala je istorijski dokument o jednoj značajnoj etapi u industrijskom razvoju, ali i vitka silueta Pariza. Njegov simbol za sva vremena.
toranj. A zaista, kula se vidi iz svih de- lova Pariza. Pariski umetnici su, dakle, bili u kri- vu i kula je postala pravi simbol grada i sa svojih tada 300 metara najviša gra- đevina na svetu (kada je na nju postav- ljena antena, mnogo kasnije, dosegla je sadašnjih 324 metra), gotovo dva puta viša od dotadašnjeg rekordera, obeli- ska u Vašingtonu. Godine 1930, kulu je prešišala Krajslerova zgrada u Nju- jorku (319 metara), a potom i Empajer stejt bilding (449 metara). A ipak, dva vertikalna spojena železnička mosta, što predstavlja Ajfelova konstrukcija, postali su nova estetika naučnog inženjeringa. Manje je poznato da je Ajfelova ku- la po prvobitnom planu trebalo da bude izgrađena u Barseloni, za Svetsku izlož- bu 1888, ali je ideja odbačena kao suviše skupa i čudna, pa je projekat prihvaćen za Svetsku izložbu 1889. u Parizu, a sve- čano otvoren 6. maja te godine. Zahva- ljujući merama bezbednosti, na kojima je Gistav Ajfel insistirao, tokom izgrad- nje život je izgubio samo jedan radnik, što je za ono vreme bio veliki uspeh.
Hodaš pariskim pločnicima opijen i ošamućen, sve je čarobno – leva i desna obala, i muškatle, i Sena, i sve što vidiš oko sebe, ali tek kad ugledaš njene obrise u daljini, tek tada stvarno znaš – da si u Parizu
You walk along the tiled walkways of Paris, intoxicated and besotted, with everything magical - the left and right banks and geraniums and the River Seine and everything you see around you, but it’s only when you see her contours in the distance that you really know that you’re in Paris
T he iron tower, the modern wonder of genius Gustave Ei el, celebrate the 130 th anniversary of its opening this May, so we’re returning to that time, to the distant 1889, when France cele- brated the hundredth anniversary of its rev- olution and Ei el gifted his child to Paris. A child that became a wonder, and which is ac- tually the world’s most visited monument for which entry is charged. But that wasn’t the case in the beginning. Parisian artists, painters, poets and archi- tects signed petitions against the monstrous tower, the iron beast, and protested “against the raising of an unnecessary, monstrous and embarrassingly ridiculous tower that would dominate Paris like a gigantic black chimney whose presence will undermine architecture...”, wrote artists who included Guy de Maupassant. In truth, he was the only one who remained consistent in his contempt for the tower, even when the opinions of many changed and it became a sensation. Maupassant continued dining at Ei el’s restaurant every day, because that was the only place from which he didn’t have to see the hated tower. And it really can
When the World Exposition ended, there weren’t many tourists interested in touring the tower, so it was earmarked for demoli- tion in 1909. However, a meteorological sta- tion was established on the top oor in the meantime, and it was also used to establish telegraph connections, which proved par- ticularly useful during the period of World War I, when the French succeeded in inter- cepting numerous German messages and even capturing the famous Mata Hari. And thus the tower survived, only to be threat- ened again when the Nazis entered Paris in 1940. The French cut all lift cables on the tow- er, so that the enemy would have to climb on foot, and the lifts weren’t repaired until 1946. However, we shouldn’t forget that the tower was saved by a German, General Di- etrich von Choltitz, who refused Hitler’s or- der to raze it to the ground. The tower has proved useful to science over the years, with various experiments car- ried out, and it remains as an historical doc- ument to an important stage of industrial development, but also the slim silhouette of Paris. Its symbol for all time.
be seen from all parts of Paris.
Parisian artists were, thus, mistaken, and the tower became a true symbol of the city and, with its then height of 300 metres, the tallest building in the world (when an anten- na was added much later it reached its cur- rent height of 324 metres), almost twice as tall as the then previous record holder, the Washington Monument obelisk. The tower was surpassed by New York’s Chrysler build- ing in 1930 (319 m), and then also the Em- pire State Building (449 m). However, the two vertical fused rail bridges represented by Eif- fel’s construction became the new aesthet- ic of scienti c engineering. It is less known that the original plan was for the Ei el Tower to be constructed in Barcelona for the 1888 World Exhibition, but the idea was rejected as being too ex- pensive and peculiar, so the project was ac- cepted for the 1889 World Exhibition in Par- is and was o cially unveiled on 6 th May that year. Thanks to the security measures insist- ed on by Gustave Ei el, only one worker lost his life during the construction, which was a great success for the time.
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