Châtelet: Answer

Fontaine de la Victoire (now the Fontaine du Palmier/the Palm Fountain), 1806-1808. Sphinxes added in 1858. Place du Châtelet. 
1st arrondissement. Metro: Châtelet

Photo: Anna Ross and Lindsay Persohn

Originally, the Fontaine de la Victoire  was one of the fifteen new fountains created by decree in 1806 intended to provide water throughout the city of Paris, but it also had the less pragmatic funtion of celebrating the military victories of Napoleon. The commanding sphinxes were added to the cardinal points of the fountain in 1858. The fountain was moved and redesigned at that time to better conform with a new layout for the Place du Châtelet during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, Napoleon III. Thus, the redesign both served a practical need and emphasized the relationship between the two rulers.

Photo: Emily Reed and Becca Barton

The fountain was given a new base and the four sphinxes--each spouting water--were added.

Photo: Lindsay Persohn and Anna Ross

Based on the ancient sphinxes of Luxor (380-363 BCE), the Châtelet sphinxes all wear the nemes with the cobra uraeus at the forehead. In ancient Egypt, the uraeus symbolized the goddess Wadjet, and represented the kingdom of Lower Egypt.

Photo: Lindsay Persohn and Anna Ross

Jean-Marcel Humbert has pointed out that the transformation of the sphinx into a water spout was most unusual. More typically crouching lions, like the ones on the fountain now at La Villette, were employed in this way. Sphinxes, like the ones near Saint-Sulpice, more typically had a guardian function. (See Paris, Ottawa, and Vienna 1994, pp. 332-33)

Photo: Mary B. Shepard

This engaging Space Invader above the sphinx's head, by the street artist, Invader (see Space Invader Web site), adds a contemporary reference to this very nineteenth-century monument. 

Lindsay and Anna keeping cool!