On March 29, 2023, at around 11 a.m., an equestrian statue of Joan was returned to its promontory at the Place de la Résistance in Caen. The statue had been in Rouen undergoing extensive cleaning and restoration work since November 2022. It had been two decades since the statue was last renovated, and this time they not only had to clean it, its golden coat, which was added in 2002, had to be restored as well due to extreme degradation. More work was also scheduled to be done on site the same day the statue was put back in its place.
This equestrian statue of Joan, made by French sculptor Joseph Ebstein in 1931, is only one of the many scattered across France. This comes as no surprise since Joan's legacy has been celebrated across history through basically any and all existing forms of art. Statues have always been an especially poignant and beloved way of paying tribute to those who left a mark on the hearts of many. Statues don't necessarily require to be hidden indoors, like a painting would; stone is not ephemeral, like a piece of music or a theater play. Statues are mementos of those who are no more that are meant to live among those who are still here. When statues are displayed in the open they become an extension of the places they're in, both emotionally and physically, and as such the connection they create with the community surrounding them is often very tangible and personal. From their eternal promontories statues watch over the cities and their people, both literally and figuratively.
The very first monument dedicated to the memory of Joan was erected twenty five years after her death. On July 7th, 1456 at 8 a.m. the Sentence of Rehabilitation was solemnly read by the Archbishop of Rheims in front of the Court, which had assembled in the Hall of the Archiepiscopal Palace in Rouen. This sentence declared the 1431 condemnation trial "null, void, without value or effect", and sealed the restoration of Joan's name, and therefore her family's, for eternity. The sentence also includes a very poignant paragraph which is relevant to our case:
Tomorrow, in the Old Market, at the very place where Jeanne was suffocated by a cruel and horrible flame, with also a general preaching and an honest affixing of the cross for the perpetual memory of the deceased and the salvation of her and other deceased.
Tomorrow here is July 8th 1456, which is when the cross mentioned in the paragraph was placed in the old Market Square in Rouen, on the exact spot where Joan was "suffocated by a cruel and horrible flame". Today that cross is no longer there, most likely lost in the folds of history; a marble statue of Joan tied to the burning stake stands in its stead on that same spot. The statue, made by French sculptor Maxime Real del Sarte (1888-1954), was inaugurated in 1929 and has stood there as perpetual memento of Joan's demise ever since.
How many monuments dedicated to Joan are out there?
The answer is a lot. More than a hundred are scattered across France alone, and these include both equestrian and «en pied» statues, where Joan is on foot. If we count the ones outside of French soil the count goes up in the hundreds. Each one of those statues has a story worthy of its own article, but for the sake of keeping things within reason I will focus on just two, which happen to be my favorite ones of all.
Monument à Jeanne d'Arc by Lucienne Signoret-Ledieu (1853-1904)
In 1429 Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier was among the remaining towns around the Loire river still firmly under English control. Heavily fortified and surrounded by a deep moat, liberating it proved to be no easy task even for Joan. When she arrived in late October, the initial assault she led failed, and she was forced to retreat. Joan being Joan, she rendezvoused in Borgues, where she amassed a larger contingent by joining forces with Charles d'Albret. Together they launched a second assault on November 4, which despite a vigorous defense put up by the English, this time proved successful and Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier was finally rid of the English presence. Also, Joan being Joan, the town was spared from looting.
This is a very well documented, very simple story from the tail end of Joan's Loire Campaign, but that simplicity is also what makes is so timeless and heartwarming. It's one of those archetypal tales that has it all: the English being in a place they shouldn't be, doing things they shouldn't be doing, and an unlikely hero who sends them packing. Classic. The hero being Joan here is obviously a bonus, but it's also what makes the statue unveiled on August 24, 1902 in Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier all the more moving. Joan stands tall in the almost geometrical center of the town, dressed in full armor, with her banner raised, holding her sword by the blade. The inscription on the promontory reads "A JEANNE D'ARC, LIBERATRICE DE St. PIERRE LE MOUTIER EN 1429" ("to Joan of Arc, liberator of St. Pierre le Moutier in 1429"). The presence of this statue in such a small and too often forgotten town is especially poignant and representative of just how much love the communities of the Loire region still have for Joan. The pose and body language of Joan's stone counterpart here truly conveys how her work didn't just stop at liberating the town – her statue is a testament to how she stands forever watchful over the land and the people she so dearly loved. Joan didn't just save the bigger and more famous city of Orléans and then stop to bask in the glory, she pressed on and as part of her campaign she also liberated a plethora of smaller towns scattered around the Loire region. This is why these monuments are so beloved and so well taken care of by the communities around them, even after almost six centuries.
Croix Pucelle in Saint-Germain-en-Laye
The town of Saint-Germain-en-Layne is about 20 Kms north of Paris, and it's home to a forest within which lies one of the most elusive and yet perhaps the most significant monuments dedicated to the memory of Joan. So elusive in fact that it's hard to find it if one doesn't know where to look. It's not a big and flashy statue coated in gold, instead it's but a simple stone cross standing on a basic promontory. Its rugged look gives away its seniority: it has been standing there like a solemn protector of the forest for more than five centuries now, ever since it's believed to have been placed there in 1456 under direct order of none other than Jean d'Orléans Count of Dunois. We are not entirely able to prove its origin, but given the evidence available from contemporary sources, including the words of the Count himself who is reported to have requested "crosses to be planted in remembrance and perpetual memory of the Pucelle", plus the inscription, especially the date 1456, plus the location, all those elements do make a very strong case for this being the very cross wanted by the Count of Dunois to celebrate Joan's memory. If anything it would be quite strange if it wasn't. Of all the details, the date engraved on the cross is indeed the most telling: 1456 is when the Rehabilitation Trial comes to a close and Joan is posthumously cleared of all charges, which is hard to believe it being just coincidence here. This unassuming cross made of bare stone and placed in the middle of a forest, is indeed believed to be the final tribute to Joan, wanted by her brother in arms Jean of Orléans, Count of Dunois. This is a man who fought ferociously and bravely alongside Joan in Orléans and during the Loire Campaign, and who by 1456 had become governor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
By all accounts, including Dunois', he and Joan were not only comrades, but also very good friends, and this is what makes the Croix Pucelle so powerful and poignant: this seemingly unimpressive slab of stone represents a friendship that started more than half a millennia ago, between two individuals who couldn't have been more different from one another, who were brought together through one of the most incredible series of events that's ever happened in history, the unfolding of which still boggles the mind of historians more than five centuries later. Like an ancestral stone from an era long gone, The Croix Pucelle is a conduit through which an old bond is channeled and renovated in perpetuity. We can only imagine the emotions that must've gone through the Count's mind when he learned about the rehabilitation trial of his old friend Joan, more than two decades after she had been abandoned by her own king and left to die a horrible death at the hands of the enemy – the same king who owed his crown entirely to her, the same enemy she had fought and defeated so many times on behalf of the weak and spineless Dauphin.
Of all the grandiose statues erected all across France and around the world in honour of Joan, beautiful and awe-inducing as they might be (and most of them are), none of them are as moving as this old cross of bare stone, rugged and hardly tall, placed in a seemingly random spot in the middle of a forest. None of them can match the humanity of the Croix Pucelle in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, none of them can make one's eyes teary as quickly this one does when standing in front of it. One can only hope that the Count managed to find solace, and perhaps even closure, in the thought that the stains left by the condemnation trial had finally been washed off of Joan's name. He was now able to publicly celebrate his friend's memory, something that sadly would not have been a wise thing to do up until then. It had taken twenty five years, but Joan had now won that battle too. It was to be expected, the Count must have thought, as he – better than anybody else – knew she would.