MONUMENT PALMYRA: FRANÇOIS FOUQUET'S RECONSTRUCTION OF THE TETRAPYLON

The Monument at Palmyra reconstructs one of the most celebrated landmarks of the ancient world — the Tetrapylon, a monumental four-part structure that once marked a bend in the Grand Colonnade of Palmyra, in modern Syria. Modelled by the French model-maker François Fouquet and acquired by Sir John Soane in 1834, this piece reproduces a single one of the Tetrapylon's four column-groups: four tall granite columns on a stepped plinth, carrying a single massive cornice.

The Tetrapylon stood largely intact for over sixteen centuries, restored in the 1960s after most of its original pink granite columns were lost, only to be almost entirely destroyed by ISIS in January 2017 — leaving Fouquet's nearly two-hundred-year-old model, and this reproduction of it, as a rare and faithful record of how the monument once stood complete.

This model is produced by Chisel & Mouse under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum, and is a faithful reproduction of the original in the Museum's collection.

  • Written by Gavin Paisley, director & model-maker at Chisel & Mouse based in Sussex, England.
  • Last updated: 21-Sep-26

Photograph by Bernard Gagnon, licensed under CC A-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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What is the Monument at Palmyra?

The Monument at Palmyra reconstructs part of the Tetrapylon, one of the defining landmarks of the ancient caravan city of Palmyra, in the Syrian desert. Built at the end of the 3rd century AD, during renovations under the emperor Diocletian, the Tetrapylon marked a bend in Palmyra's Grand Colonnade, where the city's main processional street changed direction. It took the form of a stepped square platform with a plinth at each of its four corners; each plinth carried a group of four tall columns, sixteen in total, each group supporting its own single, solid stone cornice weighing over 150 tons, with a pedestal at its centre that once held a statue.

Our model reproduces one of these four column-groups — a section of the whole monument, rather than the complete four-sided structure. Sir John Soane purchased Fouquet's model in 1834, along with nineteen others, and it remains in the Museum's collection today, catalogued as MR34.

Facts panel

Section of the Tetrapylon, Palmyra, Syria. Model in the Sir John Soane's Museum collection.

  • Original monument built: Late 3rd century AD, under Diocletian
  • Location: Palmyra, Syria, on the Grand Colonnade
  • Original materials: Pink granite columns, imported from Aswan, Egypt
  • This model shows: One of the Tetrapylon's four column-groups (four columns and a cornice), not the complete four-sided monument
  • Model-maker: François Fouquet (1787–1870), Paris
  • Model created: c. 1800–1834
  • Acquired by Sir John Soane: 1834, from the architect Edward Cresy
  • Museum number: MR34, Sir John Soane's Museum, London
  • Fate of the original: Restored in concrete in 1963; almost entirely destroyed by ISIS in January 2017
  • This reproduction: Produced by Chisel & Mouse under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum

The model-maker: François Fouquet and Sir John Soane

François Fouquet (1787–1870) was a Parisian model-maker working in the tradition established by his father, Jean-Pierre Fouquet, who had produced architectural models for the École Polytechnique in Paris. Between roughly 1800 and 1834, François Fouquet made a series of exquisite plaster-of-Paris models reconstructing ancient monuments as they would have looked when new — a striking counterpart to the cork models of the period, which more commonly depicted buildings in their contemporary, ruined state.

In 1834, the architect Sir John Soane — designer of the Bank of England and one of the era's great collectors of architectural knowledge — purchased twenty of these models from the architect Edward Cresy, who had been working in Paris and had acquired them directly. Soane installed them in a new Model Room on the second floor of his house at 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, a space converted from what had previously been his wife's bedroom, where they remain on display today. At 33.5 centimetres tall, the Palmyra piece is among the largest and most imposing of the twenty.

Architectural character: a monumental crossroads marker

The Tetrapylon was, in effect, a piece of urban theatre in stone: a device to make a change of direction along Palmyra's Grand Colonnade feel deliberate and monumental rather than awkward. Each of its four corners carried an identical group of four columns on a stepped plinth, the columns originally carved from pink granite quarried at Aswan in Egypt and shipped across the ancient world to Palmyra — a considerable feat of logistics in its own right. Each group of four columns supported a single, solid cornice of enormous weight, with a pedestal at its centre that would originally have carried a statue.

By the twentieth century, only one of the Tetrapylon's original sixteen granite columns survived; the rest were reconstructed in concrete during a restoration by the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities in 1963. Fouquet's model, made over a century before that restoration, reconstructs one of the four column-groups as it would have appeared complete in antiquity — granite columns, cornice, and statue pedestal together, exactly as the monument was designed rather than as it survived into the modern era.

Photograph by Zezinho68, licensed under CC A-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

History: from Roman crossroads to Georgian London, and back to ruin

The Tetrapylon was built at the end of the 3rd century AD, during a phase of renovation under the emperor Diocletian, at the height of Palmyra's importance as a caravan city linking the Roman world to Persia and beyond. Fouquet's model, made in Paris sometime before 1834, was one of twenty plaster reconstructions Sir John Soane purchased that year from the architect Edward Cresy, and it has remained in the Soane Museum's Model Room ever since, save for a period of wartime risk when three of Fouquet's other models were damaged by bomb blast in October 1940.

The original monument endured far longer than most of its Roman contemporaries, surviving with only one original granite column by the twentieth century, when the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities restored the rest in concrete in 1963. That restoration itself was then destroyed: in January 2017, during ISIS's second occupation of Palmyra, militants demolished the Tetrapylon almost entirely, leaving only a handful of its sixteen columns standing. Fouquet's nearly two-hundred-year-old model — and this reproduction of it — now stands as one of relatively few complete records of the monument as it was designed to be seen, long before either its 1960s restoration or its twenty-first-century destruction.

Cultural significance

The Tetrapylon was, for decades, one of the most photographed and recognisable monuments in Palmyra — a genuine icon of the ancient world, and one of the clearest surviving examples of how Roman engineers turned an awkward change in a street's direction into a moment of civic grandeur. Its near-total destruction in 2017 was reported around the world as a significant loss to global heritage. Fouquet's model, made well over a century before that loss, offers something increasingly rare: a faithful record of the monument's original, complete design, made long before either its twentieth-century restoration or its twenty-first-century destruction.

The model-maker's lens

  • Focus — one column-group of the Tetrapylon: four columns, their capitals, and the single cornice they support, rather than the complete four-sided monument.
  • Detail — the columns are 3D printed for precision, set against hand-cast plaster, echoing Fouquet's own meticulous original.
  • How it reads at small scale — striking; the tall, narrow proportions of a single column-group give the piece real presence, distinct from the more horizontal compositions of the other pieces in this collection.
  • How to display — as a set alongside our Mylasa and Temple of Artemis reproductions from the same Soane's Museum collection, or as a standalone piece for anyone with an interest in Palmyra or the preservation of endangered heritage.
  • How we made it — produced under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum, cast in plaster with 3D-printed columns, set on a felt base and displayed under an acrylic case.

View the Monument Palmyra architectural model

Visiting the original

Fouquet's original Palmyra model remains on display in the Model Room at Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London — accessible by pre-booked tour only. Palmyra itself remains a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though the Tetrapylon no longer stands as it once did.

Frequently asked questions about the Monument at Palmyra

Who made the Monument at Palmyra model?

The original plaster model was made by the French model-maker François Fouquet (1787–1870), one of twenty models purchased by Sir John Soane in 1834.

What does the Monument at Palmyra model show?

It reconstructs one of the four column-groups of Palmyra's Tetrapylon — a monumental structure built at the end of the 3rd century AD to mark a bend in the city's Grand Colonnade. The model shows a single group of four columns and its cornice, not the complete four-sided monument.

Does the Tetrapylon still exist?

Only in part. Most of its original granite columns were already lost by the twentieth century and replaced in concrete during a 1963 restoration; the monument was then almost entirely destroyed by ISIS in January 2017.

Is this an original Fouquet model?

No. Chisel & Mouse's model is a faithful reproduction, made under licence with Sir John Soane's Museum. The original, dating from around 1800–1834, remains in the Museum's Model Room in London.

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