The Eiffel Tower is set to undergo a major three-year makeover and could be about to shed its brown colour and instead dazzle visitors with a new, brighter coat of paint.
It might be hard to imagine but at the request of its designer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was painted red due to the colour’s rust-fighting capabilities when it was first erected in 1889. In 1892, it was painted an equally hard to imagine ochre – a light shade of orange, according to The Local.
And it didn’t stop there.
In 1899, things really got creative when the monument was painted an orange-yellow at its base and light yellow at the top. And from 1907 to 1954, it was a yellow-brown colour before it was painted brown-red in 1968.
Today, the Iron Lady has painted a specially designed shade of brown and it hasn’t yet been decided whether the monument will definitely be given a bright makeover.
It will take 60 tons of paint to cover Paris’s Iron Lady. The painting will begin in October and is likely to last three years as part of a longer project.