A Bit Of Rome In Lafayette

Have you ever walked by a building and thought that it looked familiar? For years now when I have walked by the old First Merchants National Bank in downtown Lafayette I have thought of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It wasn’t until recently that I found out that this is almost an exact replica of the Arch of Titus that is in rome. The arch of titus was the inspiration for the french arch so it makes sense that I would have confused them. The original Arch of Titus in Rome is nearly 2,000 years old. Our version in Lafayette is just over 100 years old. This building is beautiful on the outside, but on the inside I hear that it is even more beautiful. I need to find a time when I can photograph that as well.

Its In The Details

As I said above this is an almost exact replica of the arch that sits in Rome. One difference though is that instead of Titus right over the arch front and center you have Lafayettes namesake Marquis de Lafayette. Walking down Main Street in Lafayette I can’t help but think about all of the time that was put into these buildings just on the details. I need to take a long lens for a walk one of these days to capture all of those details.