In 1989, a “Grande Arche” was constructed in Paris’ “La Défense” area, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. It is situated in a straight line with the Arche de Triomphe, the Champs Elysées, and the Louvre. If you go to the top of the arch, you have a magnificent view down this perfectly straight line.
The strange thing is that, though the center of the arch is in the correct place, the whole thing is rotated a few degrees, enough to be noticibly “facing” a slightly different direction. I can’t believe this is a simple mistake, as anyone could easily spot the misalignment. Does anyone have an idea as to why they would deliberately misalign this arch?
It’s not a mistake- IIRC there was some structural or technical reason why the Grande Arche was rotated a few degrees from the ‘Grand Axis’, although I can’t remember the details.
Incidentally, the size of the Grande Arche was fixed so as to continue the progression in terms of relative size and distance apart of the other two arches along the axis- the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the Arc de Triomphe- perhaps, in the future some megalomaniac French president will construct some behemoth arch out in the northwestern suburbs of Paris to continue the series.