Bronze sculpture "Pierre de Wissant" by Auguste Rodin, museum replica

Rodin's famous "Citizens of Calais" are a historical symbol of self-sacrifice: in the 100-year war, Calais was besieged by the English fleet and offered 11 months of heroic resistance until the residents suffering from famine offered the surrender. King Edward III. Accepted on the condition that 6 citizens voluntarily appeared for the city for the city: "barorous and insufficient - dressed in the coat of the poor sinner and the knitting on the neck". At the request of Queen Philippine, Edward III spared. The life of the brave men and refrained from destroying the city. In his main work created in 1886, Auguste Rodin did not depict a powerful for the first time, but the courageous act of simple citizens. As a national monument of England and France, there is now a cast of the life -size group of sculptures behind the "Houses of Parliament" in London, in the garden of the Musée Rodin in Paris - and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.