CROCÉ-SPINELLI and SIVEL
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Aeronauts.
On 15 April 1875, the two aeronauts rose to eight thousand six hundred metres aboard the Zénith: oxygen ran out, and only their companion Gaston Tissandier came down alive. Dumilâtre sculpted them lying down, holding hands, beneath a palm: “Les ailes brisées” — the broken wings.
The story
Joseph Crocé-Spinelli was born at Monbazillac on 10 July 1845: an engineer, the inventor of a nautical velocipede and of an electric moving walkway. Théodore Sivel was born at Sauve on 18 November 1834: a deep-sea captain, with some two hundred balloon ascents behind him.
They flew together for the first time on 22 March 1874, aboard L'Étoile polaire, and reached seven thousand three hundred metres. On 23 and 24 March 1875 the Zénith carried them for twenty-two hours and forty minutes, from Paris to Arcachon — a record for endurance.
On 15 April 1875 they set off again with Gaston Tissandier to break the altitude record. At eight thousand six hundred metres the oxygen ran out; the two men lost consciousness and died of asphyxia. Tissandier alone survived, and came down with the bodies.
The grief was national. A plot in perpetuity was granted by prefectural order on 5 May 1875, and the monument was raised by national subscription.
In 1878 Alphonse Dumilâtre delivered a double recumbent effigy in bronze: the two balloonists laid out on their backs, holding each other by the hand. A palm carries three words — “Les ailes brisées”, the broken wings.
The grave
The monument is one of the most moving in the cemetery: a double recumbent effigy in bronze delivered in 1878 by Alphonse Dumilâtre and cast by Gruet Jeune, in which the two aeronauts lie on their backs, holding each other's hand. A bronze palm bears three words — “Les ailes brisées”, the broken wings — and the inscription gives the altitude as an epitaph: “Crocé-Spinelli and Sivel, died at a height of 8,600 metres”. The plot was granted by prefectoral decree of 5 May 1875, three weeks after the accident, and the monument raised by national subscription.
On site, do not miss
The two joined hands of the double recumbent effigy, and the three words of the palm: “Les ailes brisées”, the broken wings.
Visitors' questions
Where is the grave of Crocé-Spinelli and Sivel?
In Division 71, avenue Circulaire, first row, in the upper part of the cemetery. The double bronze recumbent effigy, in which the two men hold each other by the hand, is one of the most moving monuments in Père-Lachaise.
Sophie BlanchardHow did they die?
Of asphyxia, on 15 April 1875, at an altitude of eight thousand six hundred metres, in the basket of the balloon Zénith: the oxygen ran out. Their companion Gaston Tissandier alone survived and came back down with the bodies.
Étienne-Gaspard RobertsonWhat does their monument show?
The two balloonists lying on their backs, hand in hand: a double bronze recumbent effigy by Alphonse Dumilâtre, delivered in 1878 and cast by Gruet Jeune. A palm bears the words “Les ailes brisées” — the broken wings.
Georges RodenbachWho paid for their grave?
A national subscription, on a perpetual plot granted by prefectoral order on 5 May 1875 — three weeks after the accident. The whole country had been deeply shaken.
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