Using the blueprints of the architect Jean-Francois-Therese Chalgrin (1739-1811), Napoleon had this triumphal arch built in order to commemorate his armies and to close the perspective at the end of the Tuileries Garden. Although the cornerstone was laid in 1806, building was interrupted at the fall of the Empire and was completed in 1836 under the reign of Louis-Philippe. (e.g. B. Chevallier, Napoleon, Wonders Exhibition Catalogue p.158)