Eiffel Tower gilded for Olympics

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, but now it’s getting a makeover that might make tourists do a double-take. The tower’s distinctive brownish color is about to be replaced by an eye-catching golden hue, just in time for the 2024 Olympic Games hosted in Paris.

In the Eiffel Tower’s most extensive renovation in 130 years, all previous 19 coats of paint are being removed and the surface will be painted a new shade of gold — the same “yellow-brown” shade that engineer Gustave Eiffel himself envisioned for 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 color that we’re used to seeing, in time for the Olympic Games.”

It’s believed that Eiffel chose the golden hue because he wanted the tower to reflect the yellowish limestone architecture of the surrounding city. Now, it will be perfectly in keeping with the golden Olympic medals.

The work to renovate the tower began in 2019 and is expected to be completed by 2022. The cost of the monumental paint job is estimated at over $60 million. Upon its presentation in the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris, the Eiffel Tower was painted red.

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