Eiffel Tower getting a makeover ready for 2024 Olympics

ONE of the World’s most famous landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, is getting a makeover to prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The most important part of the work is its painting, which will make it look more like its creator Gustave Eiffel wanted it, with a yellow-brown colour which will give it a more golden appearance.

The colour is thought to have been chosen by Eiffel to reflect that of the city of Paris, according to Pierre-Antoine Gatier, the chief architect for France’s historical monuments.

To do this, 19 previous layers of paint will be removed and it will no longer be the brown colour it has had since 1968. It gets a coat of paint every seven years to protect the structure and maintain its appearance.

Strict health measures are required to do this, as there is lead in the paint on the tower.

Patrick Branco Ruivo, the CEO of the company operating the tower, said “It’s going to give the Eiffel Tower a bit more of a gold hue than the colour that we’re used to seeing, in time for the Olympic Games.”

The work on the 324-metre tower started in 2019 and is due to be completed by 2022 at a cost of €50 million, the French press has reported.

The Eiffel Tower will be an important location in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, mainly for the triathlon and swimming events, as well as for events along the Seine, such as concerts.

Known as ‘La dame de fer‘ (the ‘Iron Lady’), it was built from 1887 to 1889 as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair, it was initially criticised by some of France’s leading artists and intellectuals for its design.

It has become a global symbol of France and the most-visited paid monument in the world.

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