Eiffel family will fight Olympic rings staying on Paris tower

Descendants of Gustave Eiffel said the tower is a ‘symbol of the city of Paris’ – Copyright AFP/File Thibaud MORITZ

The descendants of the Eiffel Tower’s designer say they will fight to stop the Olympic rings being left on the tower as the mayor of Paris plans.

The family of the legendary engineer Gustave Eiffel said they “oppose any alteration that negatively impacts respect for the work” of their ancestor, adding they had already consulted lawyers about blocking the change.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo plans to keep the massive multicoloured rings that were attached to the “Dame de Fer” (“Iron Lady”) for the Paris Olympics until at least 2028, when the next Games will be held in Los Angeles.

But the descendants argued that the symbol is “colourful, large in size, placed on the main avenue of approach to the tower (and) creates a strong imbalance” in the tower’s shape, “substantially modifying the very pure forms of the monument”.

Keeping the rings in place would go against “the neutrality and meaning acquired over the years by the Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of the city of Paris and even all of France across the world,” their family association, AGDE, said in a statement Sunday.

They suggest that the rings should stay in place only until “the end of 2024, which marks the end of the Olympic year”.

Completed in 1889 for Paris’ Universal Exhibition and originally intended to stand for only 20 years, the 330-metre Eiffel Tower is owned by the city of Paris.

It is the world’s most visited monument according to its website, attracting around seven million people every year — around three-quarters of them from abroad.