Napoleon, a record of whose victories in incised on the archs flanks, decorated the summit with the famed four bronze horses from St. Marks in conquered Venice. The Venetians had taken them from conquered Constantinople, which had acquired them in Rome, which, in turn, had looted them from, it is believed, the Temple of the Sun in Corinth. After Napoleons defeat, France was forced to return them--to Venice. The Tuileries Garden, which fronted the Tuileries Palace (looted and burned in 1871 during the Commune), has not altered much since André Le Nôtre laid it out in 1664. Le Nôtre, who was born and who died right in the garden, in the gardeners cottage, carried the line of his central allée beyond the garden and out into the country by tracing a path straight along the wooded hill west of the palace. On this hilltop, 170 years later, the Arch of Triumph was erected.