title: Pep Guardiola

text: After retiring as a player, Guardiola briefly coached Barcelona B, with whom he won a Tercera División title. He took charge of the first-team in 2008. In his first season, he led Barcelona to the treble of La Liga, UEFA Champions League, and the Copa del Rey, becoming the youngest manager to win the aforementioned European competition. In 2011, after leading the club to another La Liga and Champions League double, Guardiola was awarded the Catalan Parliament's Gold Medal, their highest honour. The same year, he was also named the FIFA World Coach of the Year. He ended his four-year Barcelona stint in 2012 with 14 honours, a club record.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: After a sabbatical period, Bayern Munich announced Guardiola would join the club as manager in 2013. Guardiola won the Bundesliga in each of his three seasons as Bayern manager, including two domestic doubles. He left the "Bavarians" for Manchester City in 2016, and guided them to a Premier League title in his second campaign in charge, breaking numerous domestic records as the team became the first to attain 100 league points. To date, he has won four Premier League titles, four EFL Cups, and the FA Cup, including a domestic treble in the 2018–19 season. He also led the club to their maiden UEFA Champions League Final in 2021.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Born in Santpedor, Barcelona, Catalonia, Guardiola joined La Masia at age 13 from Gimnàstic de Manresa and rose through the ranks of Barcelona's youth academy for six years, making his début in 1990 against Cádiz. As Phil Ball writes in "Morbo",


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Cruyff utilised the young midfielder in the absence of the suspended Guillermo Amor. He became a first-team regular in the 1991–92 season, and at only 20 years old was a key component of a side that won La Liga and the European Cup. The Italian magazine "Guerin Sportivo" heralded Guardiola as the finest player in the world under the age of 21. Cruyff's "Dream Team" went on to retain La Liga title in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons. The side was strengthened by the recent signing of Romário, and again reached the 1994 UEFA Champions League Final, but were beaten 4–0 by Fabio Capello's Milan side in Athens. Cruyff left in 1996, with Barcelona finishing fourth in the 1994–95 season and third in the 1995–96 season, but Guardiola retained his position at the centre of Barça's midfield.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: In the 1996–97 season, Barcelona, this time led by Bobby Robson, won three cups: the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de España, and the European Cup Winners' Cup. Much of the Dream Team had by this time left, with new signings such as Luís Figo and Ronaldo taking over from Hristo Stoichkov and Michael Laudrup. In 1997, Guardiola was named as Barcelona captain under new manager Louis van Gaal, but a calf muscle injury ruled Guardiola out of most of the 1997–98 season, in which Barcelona won a league and cup double. At the end of the season, Barcelona rejected offers from Roma and Parma (of around 300 million pesetas) for Guardiola. After prolonged and complicated contract talks, he signed a new contract with the Catalan club that extended his stay until 2001.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola returned to action the following season and Barcelona once again won La Liga, thanks largely to the performances of Rivaldo and Luís Figo. On 8 June 1998, Guardiola underwent surgery to try to resolve his lingering calf injury, which had caused him to miss the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Spain. A largely disappointing 1999–2000 season again ended in surgery, with Guardiola missing the last three months of the season with a serious ankle injury. Barcelona did not win any silverware during the 2000–01 season, and finished fourth place in La Liga; nonetheless they qualified for the Champions League.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 11 April 2001, Barcelona's captain announced his intention to leave the club after 17 years of service. He stated that it was a personal decision and, in part, a response to what he perceived as football heading in a new, more physical, direction. On 24 June 2001, Guardiola played his last match with Barça in the final game of the season against Celta de Vigo. Guardiola played 479 games in 12 seasons for the first team, winning 16 trophies. At the press conference after the Celta game, he said, "It's been a long journey. I'm happy, proud, happy with the way people treated me and I have made many friends. I cannot ask for more. I have had many years in the elite. I did not come to make history but to make my own history." A number of future Barcelona midfielders, including Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Cesc Fàbregas, have hailed Guardiola as their role model and hero.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: After leaving Barcelona in 2001 at age 30, Guardiola joined Serie A side Brescia as Andrea Pirlo's replacement in the deep-lying playmaker role, where he played alongside Roberto Baggio under manager Carlo Mazzone. Following his stint at Brescia, Guardiola transferred to Roma. His time in Italy, however, was unsuccessful and included a four-month ban for testing positive for nandrolone. Six years later, on 23 October 2007, Guardiola was cleared on appeal of all charges related to the ban. CONI, however, reopened the case against the player because it considered the absolution unacceptable, but he was cleared once again on 29 September 2009.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: After his career with Brescia and Roma, in 2003, Guardiola decided to play in Qatar with Al-Ahli from Doha in the Qatar Stars League, where many fellow greats were playing, such as Gabriel Batistuta. He had rejected another offer from Manchester United, as he wanted to play elsewhere. He became a regular in the Qatar Stars League, where he was often cited as one of the best players in the League. He also participated in the 2004–05 Arab Champions League with the club, and in the first leg of the competition's first round, Guardiola missed a penalty in the 19th minute, hitting the crossbar, but then converted one in the 73rd minute. In 2005–06, he turned down offers from a number of European sides, such as Manchester City, Manchester United, and Chelsea, as he felt his playing career was coming to a close.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: In 2006, Juan Manuel Lillo was appointed the manager of Mexican club Dorados de Sinaloa. Lillo recruited Guardiola to play for the club while he was in managing school in Axocopán, Atlixco, Puebla. Guardiola played with Dorados de Sinaloa for six months, but was limited to ten appearances due to injuries before retiring. He scored one goal for the club.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola made his senior debut on 14 October 1992 in a 0–0 draw with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in a World Cup qualifier. In the same year, Guardiola captained Spain when they won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. It was in this year when he won the Bravo Award, which recognises the world's best player under the age of 21. Between 1992 and 2001, Guardiola played over 47 times and scored five goals for the senior Spain team. He was a member of the Spanish team during the 1994 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing 2–1 to Italy. He fell out of favour with Javier Clemente, Spain's manager, due to disagreements and missed out on Euro 1996. He suffered a career-threatening injury in 1998, which kept him out of the 1998 World Cup, but he later played at Euro 2000, where he led Spain to yet another quarter-final, this time losing to France by the same margin, 2–1. He led the Spanish midfield until his final appearance for "la Roja", a 1–0 win in a friendly against Mexico on 14 November 2001; he scored his last international goal against Sweden in a 1–1 draw during his 45th appearance.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola has played for and advocated on behalf of the Catalonia football team. Between 1995 and 2005, he played seven friendly games for Catalonia.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola was a highly creative, hard-working, nimble, and elegant player, with good anticipation, tactical awareness, and an ability to read the game; throughout his career, he was usually deployed as either a central or defensive midfielder in front of his team's back-line, although he was also capable of playing in more advanced midfield roles. Although he was competent defensively and able to press opponents to break up play and win the ball effectively through his team-work and defensive positioning, he also had a tendency to give away many fouls; as such, and also in part due to his slender physical build, he usually functioned as a deep-lying playmaker in front of the defence, where he excelled courtesy of his technical ability and intelligent, efficient, precise passing game. Despite his lack of notable pace, dribbling ability, aerial prowess, or strong physical or athletic attributes, Guardiola was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision, close control, passing range, positional sense, and calm composure on the ball, as well as his speed of thought, which enabled him to retain possession under pressure and either set the tempo of his team's play in midfield with quick and intricate short first-time exchanges, or switch the play or create chances with longer passes. His role has also been likened to that of a "metodista" ("centre-half," in Italian football jargon), due to his ability to dictate play in midfield as well as assist his team defensively.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola was capable of being an offensive threat, due to his ability to make attacking runs or strike accurately from distance; he was also effective at creating chances or shooting on goal from set-pieces. Having served as captain of both Barcelona and the Spanish national side, he also stood out for his leadership throughout his career. Despite his playing ability, however, he was also known to be injury prone throughout his career.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola's playing style, which relied on creativity, technique and ball movement, rather than physicality and pace, inspired several future diminutive Spanish playmaking midfielders, such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Cesc Fàbregas, with the latter describing him as his "idol". Pirlo instead described Guardiola as the "model" for the position which he himself occupied deep in midfield. Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta once described Guardiola as "the best central midfielder in our history." Johan Cruyff considered him to be one of the best midfielders of his generation, a view echoed by Richard Jolly of "FourFourTwo" and Marco Frattino, the latter of whom stated in 2018: "Twenty years ago, [...] Pep Guardiola was one of the best midfielders in the world." In 2001, his agent Josè Maria Orobitg described him as the best in the world at dictating the tempo and rhythm of his team's play.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Miguel Val of "Marca" considered Guardiola to be one of the greatest Spanish players of all time, describing him as the "brains of Barcelona's Dream Team under Johan Cruyff" in 2020. Federico Aquè described him as one of the best deep-lying playmakers in European football in his prime, while Lee Bushe of "90min.com" even included him in his list of "The Best Deep-Lying Playmakers of All Time" in 2020.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola was appointed coach of Barcelona B on 21 June 2007 with Tito Vilanova as his assistant. Under his guidance, the team subsequently won their Tercera División group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which the team won, thereby achieving promotion. FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta announced in May 2008 that Guardiola would be appointed manager of the senior Barcelona squad to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007–08 season. According to a 2013 biography of Michael Laudrup, he and not Guardiola was Laporta's first choice.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Upon being appointed, Guardiola said that Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto'o and others were not part of his plans for the coming season. By the time of the announcement, he had already offloaded full back Gianluca Zambrotta to Milan, attacking midfielder Giovani dos Santos to Tottenham Hotspur and midfielder Edmílson to Villarreal. Deco went to Chelsea while Ronaldinho joined Zambrotta in Milan. Lilian Thuram was initially set to join Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, but the discovery of a heart condition put a stop to the move, and the veteran retired to tend to his health. Oleguer signed with Ajax, Santiago Ezquerro was released by Barça and Marc Crosas was sold to Celtic. The fate of Eto'o took much of the summer to unravel, with the Cameroonian linked with several clubs, but Guardiola finally declared that he would stay after his dedication in training and participation in the pre-season.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: In association with Barcelona Director of Sport Txiki Begiristain, several new signings were made by Guardiola – Dani Alves and Seydou Keita arrived from Sevilla; Martín Cáceres from Villarreal by way of Recreativo de Huelva; Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United; and Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal. Henrique was also signed from Palmeiras, but was immediately loaned out to Bayer Leverkusen. In interviews with the press, Guardiola stressed a harder work ethic than before, but also a more personal approach during training and a closer relationship with his players. Along with the new signings, Guardiola promoted "canteranos" Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Jeffrén to the first-team squad.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola's first competitive game as coach was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barça comfortably beat Polish club Wisła Kraków 4–0 in the first leg at home. They then lost 1–0 in the second leg, but progressed with a 4–1 aggregate victory. Promoted Numancia also defeated Barcelona in the opening match-day of the La Liga, but the team then went on an undefeated streak for over 20 matches to move to the top of the league. Barça maintained their spot atop La Liga's table, securing their first league title since 2006 when rivals Real Madrid lost at Villarreal on 16 May 2009. The most important match, however, was on 2 May when they defeated Real Madrid 6–2 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The league title was the second piece of silverware in Guardiola's first season at the Camp Nou. Earlier on 13 May 2009, Barcelona won the Copa del Rey, defeating Athletic Bilbao by 4–1.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: In the Champions League semi-final against Chelsea, a late Andrés Iniesta goal in the second leg at Stamford Bridge put Barcelona through, with an ecstatic Guardiola celebrating the goal by sprinting down the touchline near to where his players were celebrating. In the final of the Champions League, Barcelona beat Manchester United 2–0. In doing so, they became the first Spanish club to win the domestic cup, the league, and the European club titles (the treble) in the same season. The treble-winning season is regarded as one of the club's finest in its history. Furthermore, he became the youngest man to coach a Champions League winning team.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: During Guardiola's second season as manager, Barcelona swapped Samuel Eto'o and €46 million in exchange for Zlatan Ibrahimović of Inter Milan. Many players left the club in the same transfer window – Eiður Guðjohnsen was sold to Monaco; Sylvinho and Albert Jorquera's contracts ended; and other players were loaned out, including Alexander Hleb to VfB Stuttgart, Martín Cáceres to Juventus, Alberto Botía to Sporting de Gijón, and Víctor Sánchez to Xerez. Barcelona started the season defeating Athletic Bilbao in the Supercopa de España and Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Super Cup. On 25 September 2009, Barcelona gave Guardiola his 50th professional victory, away against Málaga and on 19 December, they were crowned FIFA Club World Cup champions for the first time in their history.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola finished the calendar year 2009 with a record six trophies, the Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup, becoming the first manager in history to do so. In January 2010, Guardiola became Barcelona's longest serving Spanish coach, overtaking the record previously held by Josep Samitier. That same month, on the 20th, he agreed to a one-year contract extension to keep him with Barcelona until the end of the 2010–11 season.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: In February 2010, Guardiola coached his 100th match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 71 wins, 19 draws and 10 losses with 242 goals for and 76 against. On 10 April 2010, he became the first manager in Barcelona's history to beat Real Madrid four times in a row in "El Clásico". Barcelona reached the semi-finals of the 2009–10 Champions League, but lost 3–2 on aggregate to José Mourinho's Inter Milan. Despite this, they managed to win their 20th La Liga title with 99 points by beating Real Valladolid 4–0 at home. At the time, this was the highest points total ever gained amongst any of Europe's major leagues. The La Liga title was Guardiola's seventh trophy as manager of the club, tying Ferdinand Daučík for second behind Johan Cruyff and his 11 trophies.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 8 June 2010, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) fined Guardiola €15,000 following a formal inquiry opened by the Competition Committee regarding his actions and comments during and after a match against Almería on 6 March 2010. Guardiola approached the fourth official with, according to the official report, malicious intent, berating the official and speaking into his microphone with phrases such as, "You are calling everything wrong." Following the match, Guardiola accused Carlos Clos Gómez and his assistant José Luis Gallego Galdino of "lying" in their match report. Barcelona were given ten days to appeal the sanction. TV replays supported Guardiola's assertions. The game ended 2–2.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola's third season in charge saw the departure of two players who had arrived last season: Dmytro Chyhrynskyi returned to Shakhtar Donetsk and Zlatan Ibrahimović joined Milan on loan. Rafael Márquez and Thierry Henry were released from their contracts and both moved to New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer (MLS); Yaya Touré also left the team and moved to English Premier League side Manchester City. The club signed Adriano from Sevilla, David Villa from Valencia and Javier Mascherano from Liverpool. On 14 July 2010, Guardiola signed a new contract to stay with Barcelona until June 2011.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 21 August, Barcelona beat Sevilla 5–3 on aggregate to win the 2010 Supercopa de España, his second in a row. On 29 November 2010, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5–0, giving Guardiola five straight wins in "El Clásico". On 8 February 2011, Guardiola accepted the club's offer for a one-year deal extension, signing a contract until June 2012. On 16 February, in the first leg Champions League first knockout round, Barcelona were defeated by Arsenal 2–1 at Emirates Stadium. The defeat prolonged Guardiola's record of never having won the away leg of a Champions League knockout tie. On 8 March, in the second leg of the Champions League first knockout round, Barcelona defeated Arsenal 3–1, thus winning 4–3 on aggregate, moving them into the quarter-finals.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Early April saw Barcelona move eight points clear of second-placed Real Madrid in their domestic league after a key away win against Villarreal, making the most of Real Madrid's home loss against Sporting de Gijón earlier on the same day. Barcelona managed to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the fourth year – last three under Guardiola – in a row after thrashing Shakhtar Donetsk 6–1 on aggregate.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Barcelona continued their La Liga crusade for the second "El Clásico" in the Santiago Bernabéu, which ended 1–1. Lionel Messi scored for his team from the penalty spot after Raúl Albiol was sent off. Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo later replied from the penalty spot in the 80th minute of the match. Guardiola suffered his first final defeat during the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal in the 103rd minute of the match during extra time, giving the club its first title since 2008, as well as José Mourinho's first title for his new club. In the Champions League, however, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2–0 at the Bernabéu in the semi-final first leg, and after a 1–1 draw at Camp Nou, they proceeded to Guardiola's second Champions League final in three years as coach for Barcelona.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 11 May 2011, Barcelona won the La Liga title and the club's third in a row after a 1–1 draw with Levante. On 28 May, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3–1 at Wembley Stadium to win the Champions League.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola's fourth season in charge started with the departure of three long-serving Barça players: Gabriel Milito moved back to old Argentine club Independiente, Jeffrén was sold to Sporting CP and Bojan was sold to Roma. Two high-profile signings were made: Alexis Sánchez came from Udinese for €26 million plus bonuses, and Cesc Fàbregas, a former La Masia graduate, returned from Arsenal for €29 million plus bonuses. To complete the squad, two players were promoted from the youth system: Thiago and Andreu Fontàs. The season started with a 5–4 aggregate win over Real Madrid for the Supercopa de España.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Barcelona won their second trophy of the season on 26 August, beating Porto in the UEFA Super Cup final 2–0. With the trophy won against Porto, he became all-time record holder of most titles won as a coach at Barcelona. He won 12 trophies in only three years. November of the same year saw Guardiola coach his 200th match for Barça's first team. His record stood at 144 wins, 39 draws and 17 losses with 500 goals for and 143 against.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Barcelona ended the 2011 calendar year winning the Club World Cup, beating Brazilian club Santos 4–0, the widest margin in an Intercontinental Cup/Club World Cup final since changing to a single match format. This was Guardiola's 13th title of only 16 tournaments played. On 9 January 2012, he was named FIFA World Coach of the Year. On his 41st birthday, he led his side to a 2–1 victory over arch-rivals Real Madrid in "El Clásico", ensuring that he remained unbeaten against Real Madrid in regular time as a manager. On 21 April, Guardiola conceded the league title to leaders Real Madrid after they beat Barcelona 2–1 and extended their lead in the table to seven points with four matches remaining. "We have to congratulate Madrid for their win and the title that they have also won tonight," said Guardiola, after what was his side's first loss at home all season.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 24 April, a 2–2 draw at home against Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final knocked Barcelona out of the competition on a 2–3 aggregate score. That effectively left the team with only the Copa del Rey to play for. Guardiola had faced criticism over his recent tactics and squad selections. On 27 April 2012, he announced he would step down as Barcelona's coach at the end of the 2011–12 season. He had been on a rolling contract that was renewed annually during his tenure as manager. Citing tiredness as the main reason for his decision, he also commented that four years at a club like Barça felt like an eternity.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola continued to lead Barcelona to wins in the remaining La Liga games of the season, followed by a 3–0 win in the Copa del Rey final. His record of 14 trophies in four seasons has made him the most successful coach in Barcelona's history. Barcelona announced that he would be succeeded by Tito Vilanova, who would begin leading the first team at the start of the 2012–13 season.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: After his time at Barcelona came to an end, Guardiola took a year's sabbatical in New York City. On 7 January 2013, he came in third place for the 2012 FIFA World Coach of the Year, behind the winner Vicente del Bosque and runner-up José Mourinho. While at a news conference at the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or gala in Zürich, Guardiola said, "I have taken a decision to return to coaching but beyond that no decision has been taken. I don't have a team to go to but I would like to go back to coaching."


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 16 January 2013, it was announced that Guardiola would take over as manager of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich after the 2012–13 season, replacing Jupp Heynckes for the following season. He addressed his first press conference as Bayern manager, on 24 June 2013, in German, and had his first training session two days later. His first official match was the German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund, with Bayern losing 4–2. His first trophy with Bayern was the 2013 UEFA Super Cup, defeating longtime adversary José Mourinho, who had just returned to coach at Chelsea. Bayern beat ten-man Chelsea in a shoot-out after Manuel Neuer saved Romelu Lukaku's kick.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: In December 2013, Guardiola won his third Club World Cup after beating Raja Casablanca in Morocco. On 25 March 2014, he led Bayern to their 23rd Bundesliga title by beating Hertha BSC 3–1 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. With seven matches remaining in the season, it was the earliest the championship had been won in Bundesliga history, breaking the record Heynckes' Bayern had set in the previous season. Guardiola broke Karl-Heinz Feldkamp's record for the longest winning streak to start his tenure at a Bundesliga club. Feldkamp was undefeated in his first 14 matches with 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the 1978–79 season. The streak ended at 28 when FC Augsburg defeated Bayern 1–0 on matchday 29. The streak also ended Bayern's 53–match undefeated streak.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Bayern were drawn against Real Madrid in the semi–finals of Champions League. Bayern lost the first leg 1–0 and the second leg 4–0. After the first leg, Guardiola was criticised for his tactics. However, he defended them. The first leg was also Guardiola's first defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu. He was undefeated in his first seven matches in the stadium. Guardiola took the blame for the loss. Philipp Lahm, however, said: "it was a collective failure and not the fault of coach Guardiola." "kicker Sportmagazin" "singled out" Guardiola as "the key to the crisis." He finished the 2013–14 season by winning the DFB-Pokal 2–0 in extra–time.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Pre–season started on 9 July 2014 with the first friendly match on 18 July 2014. Mario Mandžukić was sold to Atlético Madrid because he believed that the "playing style of coach Pep Guardiola simply does not fit him." On 6 August 2014, Bayern played in the 2014 MLS All-Star Game in Portland, Oregon. The all-star team was led by Timbers Coach Caleb Porter. The match ended with Bayern losing 2–1 to the All-Star squad. Separate incidents involving "harsh challenges" by Osvaldo Alonso and Will Johnson visibly enraged Guardiola and after the match he refused to shake Porter's hand. One of the tackles injured Bastian Schweinsteiger.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Bayern lost the German Super Cup 2–0 to Borussia Dortmund. He had declared before the match that "every final is important, especially in Dortmund a bit more." Guardiola used a 3–4–2–1 system in the match. Guardiola handed 17-year-old Gianluca Gaudino his first team debut in the Super Cup and made him part of the first team permanently because of "strong preparation" during pre-season. In a Champions League match, Bayern defeated Roma 7–1, Bayern's biggest away win in their Champions League history. Bayern's first league loss of the season came in a 4–1 defeat to VfL Wolfsburg. On 11 March 2015, Bayern defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 7–0, tying their largest win in Champions League history. Bayern defeated Bayer Leverkusen in a shoot–out in the quarter–finals of the DFB-Pokal. On 15 April 2015, Bayern ended an 11-match undefeated streak after losing 3–1 to Porto in Portugal. In Guardiola's 100th match as head coach, Bayern defeated Porto 6–1. With the win, Bayern reached their fourth-straight Champions League semi-final. On 28 April 2015, Bayern were knocked out of the German Cup in a penalty shoot-out. Bayern had missed all four of their shots. In his first competitive match against Barcelona, Bayern lost 3–0. Bayern failed to get a shot on target in the match. For the first time in his career, he lost four in a row (including the shoot-out loss).


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Pre-season began on 1 July 2015. In the Telekom Cup, Bayern finished fourth after losing to Augsburg in the semi-final and losing to Borussia Mönchengladbach in a shootout. The competitive season started on 1 August 2015 when Bayern lost in a shoot-out to Wolfsburg in the German Super Cup. Bayern then beat Real Madrid in the Audi Cup final four days later. Then on 9 August 2015, Bayern won in the first round of the German Cup. In the league, Bayern won their first ten matches. The first time they dropped points in the league was on 30 October 2015 in a 0–0 scoreline against Eintracht Frankfurt and their first loss in the league was on 5 December 2015 in a 3–1 scoreline to Borussia Mönchengladbach. In the Champions League group stage, Bayern won Group F, winning five out of the six matches. Bayern's only loss in the Champions League group stage was against Arsenal on 20 October. This was Bayern's first loss in all competitions during the 2015–16 season.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 20 December, Bayern confirmed that Guardiola was leaving the club after his contract expires at the end of the season, with Carlo Ancelotti his replacement for the 2016–17 season.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 3 May 2016, Guardiola's Bayern Munich lost to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals stage, thereby ending his final chance of winning a Champions League title with the Bavarian club. Guardiola's final match was on 21 May 2016. Bayern defeated Borussia Dortmund in a shootout. He finished with a record of 82 wins, 11 draws, and nine losses in the Bundesliga; a record of 14 wins, three draws, and no losses in the DFB-Pokal; a record of 23 wins, five draws, and eight losses in the UEFA Champions League. He also went a combined two wins, two draws, and two losses in the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and the German Super Cup. In non–official competitions, he went a combined six wins, one draw, and one loss.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 1 February 2016, Manchester City signed Guardiola to a three-year contract for the start of the 2016–17 season. Guardiola brought in several significant signings in the summer, including midfielders İlkay Gündoğan from Borussia Dortmund and Nolito from Celta Vigo, winger Leroy Sané from Schalke 04, and defender John Stones from Everton. He also controversially replaced long-serving City starting goalkeeper Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo from his former club Barcelona; after Hart failed to impress Guardiola in pre-season, he was loaned to Torino before the end of the transfer window and would never make another appearance for the club.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Manchester City lost Guardiola's first pre-season match 1–0 to his former side Bayern Munich. On 13 August 2016, Guardiola earned victory in his first match of the Premier League season, as City won 2–1 against Sunderland. On 11 September 2016, Guardiola won his first Manchester derby as a manager in a 2–1 victory at Old Trafford; this was also his sixth win against his "rival" manager José Mourinho. By the end of September 2016, Guardiola had won all of his first ten matches in charge of Manchester City and his side were top of the Premier League table, with a four-point advantage over second-placed Tottenham Hotspur. Although he then suffered his first defeat as City manager in a 2–0 loss to Tottenham, his side remained one point clear in the league table ahead of the international break.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: City's form declined following the international break; a home draw to Southampton on 23 October 2016 meant Guardiola had equalled his managerial record of going five games without a win. City's poor run continued in the EFL Cup, being eliminated following a 1–0 defeat to Manchester United. This was Guardiola's sixth match without a win in all competitions, making it the worst run of form in his managerial career. Manchester City would lose 4–0 to Everton on 15 January 2017; this was Guardiola's biggest ever managerial loss in domestic competition. City were eliminated in the last 16 of the Champions League by Monaco on away goals after a 6–6 aggregate draw. The second leg of the tie was his 100th game as a manager in European competition, and he arrived at that mark with the best record of any manager, earning 61 wins and 23 draws (one draw better than the previous record holder, Guardiola's former manager at Barcelona, Louis van Gaal).


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Following defeat to Arsenal in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, Guardiola finished the season without a trophy – the first time this had occurred in his managerial career. Amid foul cries of being labelled "a fraud, a fraudiola", he stated that the coaching role at City "might be his last team" as manager and stated not winning a trophy, of the four available to City, constituted a "failure". However, he articulated his desire to improve the following season.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola identified the defensive areas which required improvement for City in the summer transfer window in order to challenge for the league title, particularly in the goalkeeper and full-back positions. Due to Bravo's struggles the previous season, Ederson was brought in as the new first-choice goalkeeper. Wing-backs Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker were also signed, while dispensing of all the current senior full-backs at the club in Aleksandar Kolarov, Gaël Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta. Additionally, Bernardo Silva and Danilo were also acquired from Monaco and Real Madrid, respectively.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 25 February, City beat Arsenal 3–0 to win the EFL Cup, Guardiola's first trophy with the club. On 15 April, City were confirmed as Premier League champions following Manchester United's 0–1 defeat at home to West Bromwich Albion. After finishing the season with a record-breaking 100 points, Guardiola signed a new contract with City until 2021.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: During Guardiola's third season as manager, City signed Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for a fee of £60 million. On 5 August, City began the season with a 2–0 victory over FA Cup holders Chelsea to win the 2018 FA Community Shield. On 24 February 2019, his side played Chelsea in the EFL Cup Final held at Wembley Stadium. The game ended 0–0 after extra time, but Manchester City won 4–3 on penalties to retain the trophy for the second year in a row. On 9 April, City faced Tottenham Hotspur for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, held at Tottenham's new stadium. The game ended in a 1–0 defeat for City. The second leg was held at the Etihad Stadium on 17 April, where Guardiola's side beat Tottenham 4–3, with City's last-minute fifth goal having been disallowed. Due to the aggregate score being a 4–4 draw, Tottenham went through to the semi-finals on away goals. On 12 May, Guardiola secured a second consecutive Premier League title. His side finished on 98 points, one point above Liverpool, after winning 4–1 away against Brighton & Hove Albion in the final match of the season. On 18 May, City beat Watford 6–0 in the final of the FA Cup, becoming the first ever men's team in England to win a domestic treble.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola made two major acquisitions during the summer transfer window in defender João Cancelo from Juventus for £27.4m plus Danilo and midfielder Rodri from Atlético Madrid for a fee of £62.8 million, a club record. These signings meant that the value of the City squad had exceeded €1 billion, becoming the first football club in the world to achieve a squad with this value. City began the season on 4 August by defeating Liverpool 5–4 on penalties to win the Community Shield for a second straight year. During the match, Guardiola also became the first Premier League manager to receive a yellow card from the referee. On 1 March 2020, Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2–1 in the EFL Cup Final, winning Guardiola and City a third successive league cup. Manchester City finished second in the 2019–20 Premier League, after finishing 18 points behind champions Liverpool. After defeating Real Madrid in the round of 16 of the 2019–20 Champions League, Guardiola's side faced Lyon in the single-elimination quarter-finals on 15 August 2020. City lost the match 3–1, hence being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the competition for the third season in a row.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Ahead of the 2020–21 season, Guardiola strengthened his defence with the signings of Rúben Dias from Benfica and Nathan Aké from Bournemouth; he also made an addition to the attacking line-up with the signing of Ferran Torres from Valencia. On 19 November 2020, Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City until summer 2023.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: The season saw City's defence greatly improve from the last campaign, with Rúben Dias and John Stones forming a centre-back partnership that conceded just one goal in twelve matches played together.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 31 January 2021, Guardiola won his 500th game as manager as City beat Sheffield United 1–0 at home in the Premier League. City won all nine games in January and became the team with the most wins (9) in a single month in the top four tiers of English football since the Football League began in 1888. On 8 February, Guardiola picked up his first win at Anfield as manager, as City defeated defending champions Liverpool 4–1 and went five points clear at the top of the Premier League table with a game in hand. Following a 3–1 victory over Swansea City in the FA Cup on 10 February, Guardiola's side broke the record for the longest winning run in English top-flight football history, with fifteen straight wins for City in all competitions. On 25 April, Guardiola won his fourth successive EFL Cup as City beat Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 in the final. On 4 May, Guardiola led City to their first Champions League final after defeating Paris Saint-Germain 4–1 on aggregate in the semi-finals. On 11 May, Guardiola won his third Premier League title after Manchester United lost to Leicester City at home.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 29 May, Guardiola's City were beaten by Chelsea 1–0 in the Champions League final. Following the match, he was criticised for his team selection for not starting a defensive midfielder, opposition manager Thomas Tuchel also admitted that he was surprised not to see midfielder Fernandinho in the City starting line-up. Guardiola justified starting Gündoğan in a defensive role citing his past experiences playing there and his ability to find midfield runners between compact defensive lines. Overall, Guardiola took City to a Champions League final for the first time in 2021, after three consecutive quarter-final exits (2018, 2019, 2020) and the round of 16 elimination in 2017.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: After a 6–3 victory at home over RB Leipzig in the Champions League season opener on 14 September, which saw poor turnout, Guardiola called for more fans to show up for the home games. This invitation was rebuked by City's official supporters group stating, "[Guardiola] doesn't understand the difficulties" fans are facing amidst the pandemic. On 25 September, Guardiola surpassed Les McDowall as the manager with the most wins in Manchester City history following their 1–0 away victory over Chelsea in the Premier League. Guardiola has therefore become City's most successful manager in the club's history: winning 10 major English league and cup titles to date; and maintaining a win % in excess of 70%, at least 10% higher than any proceeding manager.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 22 May 2022, Manchester City won the 2021–22 Premier League with a 3–2 victory over Aston Villa. This was Guardiola's fourth title at the club, placing him second on the list of managers with the most Premier League title victories.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Under Guardiola's predecessor Frank Rijkaard, Barcelona were known for a 4–3–3 with plenty of flair with Ronaldinho being the centre point of the attack. Under Guardiola, however, the team became more disciplined with a greater focus on possession and a disciplined and aggressive pressing style. The leader in defence was Rafael Márquez who created chances from the back with his long balls. He often played a high defensive line with the full backs (particularly Dani Alves) pushing high up their respective sides while relying on the passing of Xavi and Andrés Iniesta to retain possession and employing a pressing style without the ball. During striker Samuel Eto'o's time at Barcelona, Lionel Messi was deployed on the right hand side, though following his departure Messi largely played in the centre forward role in a false nine capacity. Pep Guardiola was quoted by Thierry Henry as "asking for discipline in possession of the ball in the first two-thirds of the pitch, and then giving players the freedom (and accountability) to finish it off in the last third of the pitch" in his time with Barcelona.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: During the 2011–12 season, Guardiola made increasing use of the 3–4–3 system, especially when facing two attackers, using Cesc Fàbregas as an attacking midfielder and Sergio Busquets as a midfield pivot. Johan Cryuff previously had used this system as a basic tactical approach when Guardiola played for Barcelona. Guardiola employed this system in a 5–0 win against Villarreal with Javier Mascherano, Sergio Busquets and Eric Abidal as the back-three and Seydou Keita acting as a defensive midfield. Of note is that throughout their careers, Mascherano, Keita and Busquets had been deployed primarily as midfielders and Abidal as a full back, meaning Guardiola did not play even one central defender in the 5–0 victory. This he repeated four years later in Bayern Munich's 3–0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen, when he fielded a back three consisting of David Alaba, Philipp Lahm, and Xabi Alonso. Although there are some spectators who assume the primary reason for the 3–4–3 was because he was short on defenders, in a later Champions League match against Milan at the Camp Nou, he employed this tactic with most of his players available for selection. As manager of Bayern Munich, he also employed a 3–4–3 formation during the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against old club Barça.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Although much emphasis is placed on retaining possession of the ball and dictating play, with the intent to have the opposing side's defence chase the ball for extended periods of play, Guardiola's teams are recognised for pressing off the ball. Players press and harry the opposition collectively in an attempt to win back possession of the ball. This collective press is only conducted in the starting third of the opposition's pitch where less space exists and defenders and/or the goalkeeper may not be as good at dribbling or passing the ball as a midfielder. At Barcelona, this was referred as the "six-second rule", in that the team should aim to win back possession of the ball within six seconds as this was the time when opposition players may still be out of position following turnover of possession and are most susceptible to being dispossessed or forced into a mistake. If possession of the ball was not won back within six seconds, players would abandon the collective press to conserve energy and revert to compact positions with men behind the ball to make it hard for the opposition to break them down. The 'six-second rule' has largely been omitted after he left Barcelona. However, the principle of swiftly winning the ball back following a turnover of possession remains at Bayern Munich and Manchester City.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: As high pressing became prominent, Guardiola sought to counteract it with goalkeepers and defenders comfortable with both long and short ball distribution. At Manchester City, Ederson routinely played accurate long balls up-field when City were pressed high, at times taking the entire opposition out-of-play, creating 1-on-1 situations for City forwards. To avoid getting caught by long-range passing from City's defensive-third, the opposition defence would cautiously drop deep despite the forward line's high-press, hence creating space in the middle of the pitch. With Ederson's superior distribution capable of finding City's midfield runners in space, the game would open up, occasionally leading to a goal-scoring opportunity for City.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola's approach to the game has evolved over the years. After learning the style analogous with Total Football under the Dutch Johan Cruyff, Guardiola was particularly influenced by his time as a player in Mexico under his friend and manager at Dorados, Juan Manuel Lillo. Guardiola also sought help of Marcelo Bielsa to learn from him. His editorials for "El Pais" during the 2006 World Cup in praise of Luis Aragones's Spanish side and Ricardo La Volpe's Mexican side reveal the extent of his reverence for possession-based, attacking football, with defenders along with the goal-keeper playing it out from the back, which Guardiola later cited as a major inspiration on multiple occasions. In one of his editorials, he called Zinedine Zidane France's best defender, pointing out how recycling possession in itself is a key defensive tactic, something that Guardiola teams would later become synonymous with. Philipp Lahm, who played for Guardiola at Bayern Munich, pointed out that Guardiola's tactics were majorly "an offensive "Sacchi"", modelled after the Italian Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan team of late , emphasising fluid movement, quick recoveries, and keeping possession of the ball, which was in sharp contrast to the strictly-defensive "Catenaccio" style employed effectively by Jose Mourinho and later by Diego Simeone; and that Guardiola has evolved his approach that seemingly was now a mix of both those styles.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Considered by pundits to be one of the greatest managers of all time, Guardiola is often linked with the successes of the Spanish and German national teams in , both of whom had many first-team players that were coached by him.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Tactics employed by Guardiola has been likened to "Gegenpressing" invented by Ralf Rangnick and used to great effect by Jürgen Klopp, which has influenced approaches of managers such as Mauricio Pochettino, Maurizio Sarri, Thomas Tuchel, and Luis Enrique; as well as those in other sports such as rugby. Guardiola admitted that he had to adapt his style to German and English leagues, but his "football education comes from [Catalunya]" which is possession-based, and distinct from "Gegenpressing".


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Jurgen Klopp credits Guardiola with building the toughest teams he has ever faced stating, "I could say City are the toughest opponent I've ever had but it wasn't much easier when I faced Pep's Bayern [..] We push each other to insane levels."


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola's obsessive preparation, and fixation on what his opponents might do, have been blamed for some key defeats with Bayern Munich and Manchester City in the Champions League, which he has not won for a decade since 2011. Ilkay Gundogan said City "over-complicate" things, whilst Kevin de Bruyne lamented "same old story" after City lost to Lyon in the 2019–20 Champions League quarter-finals. Reacting to such allegations on the night before 2022 Champions League quarter-final match against Atletico Madrid, Guardiola sarcastically remarked, "l love to overthink and create stupid tactics. Tonight I take inspiration and there will be incredible tactics tomorrow. We'll play with 12."


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola was born to Dolors and Valentí. He has two older sisters and a younger brother, Pere, a football agent. He is an atheist. Guardiola met his wife when he was 18. They married on 29 May 2014. They have three children named Maria, Màrius, and Valentina. Following his tenure as Barcelona's manager, he stated that he would move to the United States to live in Manhattan, New York, for a year, until he decided on his future. To prepare for his position as the manager of Bayern Munich, Guardiola studied German for four to five hours each day. In the same year, Tito Vilanova, former assistant manager at Barcelona under Guardiola, was in New York for the treatment of a life-threatening throat cancer. Vilanova was disappointed that Guardiola only saw him once in two months in the city, stating "He's my friend and I needed him, but he wasn't there for me."


title: Pep Guardiola

text: During his time with the Mexican club Dorados in Culiacán, Guardiola gave away "envelopes full of cash" to the lowest paid employees at the club.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola supports the political independence of Catalonia. In 2015, he confirmed that he would participate in the pro-independence coalition, Junts pel Sí, in that year's regional parliamentary election.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: Guardiola's mother, Dolors, died from complications of COVID-19, in a hospital in Barcelona, on 6 April 2020.


title: Pep Guardiola

text: On 6 January 2022, Guardiola tested positive for COVID-19. By 14 January 2022, he had fully recovered.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: "La Liberté éclairant le monde") is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The statue is a figure of Libertas, a robed Roman liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a "tabula ansata" inscribed (July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. A broken shackle and chain lie at her feet as she walks forward, commemorating the recent national abolition of slavery. After its dedication, the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Bartholdi was inspired by a French law professor and politician, Édouard René de Laboulaye, who is said to have commented in 1865 that any monument raised to U.S. independence would properly be a joint project of the French and American peoples. The Franco-Prussian War delayed progress until 1875, when Laboulaye proposed that the French finance the statue and the United States provide the site and build the pedestal. Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm before the statue was fully designed, and these pieces were exhibited for publicity at international expositions.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The torch-bearing arm was displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, and in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 1876 to 1882. Fundraising proved difficult, especially for the Americans, and by 1885 work on the pedestal was threatened by lack of funds. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the "New York World", started a drive for donations to finish the project and attracted more than 120,000 contributors, most of whom gave less than a dollar (). The statue was built in France, shipped overseas in crates, and assembled on the completed pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island. The statue's completion was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade and a dedication ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board until 1901 and then by the Department of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service as part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, and is a major tourist attraction. Public access to the balcony around the torch has been barred since 1916.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: According to the National Park Service, the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the United States was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time. The project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor. In after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in the American Civil War, is supposed to have said: "If a monument should rise in the United States, as a memorial to their independence, I should think it only natural if it were built by united effort—a common work of both our nations." The National Park Service, in a 2000 report, however, deemed this a legend traced to an 1885 fundraising pamphlet, and that the statue was most likely conceived in 1870. In another essay on their website, the Park Service suggested that Laboulaye was minded to honor the Union victory and its consequences, "With the abolition of slavery and the Union's victory in the Civil War in 1865, Laboulaye's wishes of freedom and democracy were turning into a reality in the United States. In order to honor these achievements, Laboulaye proposed that a gift be built for the United States on behalf of France. Laboulaye hoped that by calling attention to the recent achievements of the United States, the French people would be inspired to call for their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy."


title: Statue of Liberty

text: According to sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who later recounted the story, Laboulaye's alleged comment was not intended as a proposal, but it inspired Bartholdi. Given the repressive nature of the regime of Napoleon III, Bartholdi took no immediate action on the idea except to discuss it with Laboulaye. Bartholdi was in any event busy with other possible projects; in the late 1860s, he approached Isma'il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, with a plan to build "Progress" or "Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia", a huge lighthouse in the form of an ancient Egyptian female "fellah" or peasant, robed and holding a torch aloft, at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal in Port Said. Sketches and models were made of the proposed work, though it was never erected. There was a classical precedent for the Suez proposal, the Colossus of Rhodes: an ancient bronze statue of the Greek god of the sun, Helios. This statue is believed to have been over high, and it similarly stood at a harbor entrance and carried a light to guide ships. Both the khedive and Lesseps declined the proposed statue from Bartholdi, citing the expensive cost. The Port Said Lighthouse was built instead, by François Coignet in 1869.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Any large project was further delayed by the Franco-Prussian War, in which Bartholdi served as a major of militia. In the war, Napoleon III was captured and deposed. Bartholdi's home province of Alsace was lost to the Prussians, and a more liberal republic was installed in France. As Bartholdi had been planning a trip to the United States, he and Laboulaye decided the time was right to discuss the idea with influential Americans. In June 1871, Bartholdi crossed the Atlantic, with letters of introduction signed by Laboulaye.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Arriving at New York Harbor, Bartholdi focused on Bedloe's Island (now named Liberty Island) as a site for the statue, struck by the fact that vessels arriving in New York had to sail past it. He was delighted to learn that the island was owned by the United States government—it had been ceded by the New York State Legislature in 1800 for harbor defense. It was thus, as he put it in a letter to Laboulaye: "land common to all the states." As well as meeting many influential New Yorkers, Bartholdi visited President Ulysses S. Grant, who assured him that it would not be difficult to obtain the site for the statue. Bartholdi crossed the United States twice by rail, and met many Americans who he thought would be sympathetic to the project. But he remained concerned that popular opinion on both sides of the Atlantic was insufficiently supportive of the proposal, and he and Laboulaye decided to wait before mounting a public campaign.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Bartholdi had made a first model of his concept in 1870. The son of a friend of Bartholdi's, artist John LaFarge, later maintained that Bartholdi made the first sketches for the statue during his visit to La Farge's Rhode Island studio. Bartholdi continued to develop the concept following his return to France. He also worked on a number of sculptures designed to bolster French patriotism after the defeat by the Prussians. One of these was the "Lion of Belfort", a monumental sculpture carved in sandstone below the fortress of Belfort, which during the war had resisted a Prussian siege for over three months. The defiant lion, long and half that in height, displays an emotional quality characteristic of Romanticism, which Bartholdi would later bring to the Statue of Liberty.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Bartholdi and Laboulaye considered how best to express the idea of American liberty. In early American history, two female figures were frequently used as cultural symbols of the nation. One of these symbols, the personified Columbia, was seen as an embodiment of the United States in the manner that Britannia was identified with the United Kingdom, and Marianne came to represent France. Columbia had supplanted the traditional European Personification of the Americas as an "Indian princess", which had come to be regarded as uncivilized and derogatory toward Americans. The other significant female icon in American culture was a representation of Liberty, derived from Libertas, the goddess of freedom widely worshipped in ancient Rome, especially among emancipated slaves. A Liberty figure adorned most American coins of the time, and representations of Liberty appeared in popular and civic art, including Thomas Crawford's "Statue of Freedom" (1863) atop the dome of the United States Capitol Building.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The statue's design evokes iconography evident in ancient history including the Egyptian goddess Isis, the ancient Greek deity of the same name, the Roman Columbia and the Christian iconography of the Virgin Mary.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Artists of the 18th and 19th centuries striving to evoke republican ideals commonly used representations of Libertas as an allegorical symbol. A figure of Liberty was also depicted on the Great Seal of France. However, Bartholdi and Laboulaye avoided an image of revolutionary liberty such as that depicted in Eugène Delacroix's famed "Liberty Leading the People" (1830). In this painting, which commemorates France's July Revolution, a half-clothed Liberty leads an armed mob over the bodies of the fallen. Laboulaye had no sympathy for revolution, and so Bartholdi's figure would be fully dressed in flowing robes. Instead of the impression of violence in the Delacroix work, Bartholdi wished to give the statue a peaceful appearance and chose a torch, representing progress, for the figure to hold.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Crawford's statue was designed in the early 1850s. It was originally to be crowned with a "pileus", the cap given to emancipated slaves in ancient Rome. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, a Southerner who would later serve as President of the Confederate States of America, was concerned that the "pileus" would be taken as an abolitionist symbol. He ordered that it be changed to a helmet. Delacroix's figure wears a "pileus", and Bartholdi at first considered placing one on his figure as well. Instead, he used a radiate diadem, or crown, to top its head. In so doing, he avoided a reference to Marianne, who invariably wears a "pileus". The seven rays form a halo or aureole. They evoke the sun, the seven seas, and the seven continents, and represent another means, besides the torch, whereby Liberty enlightens the world.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Bartholdi's early models were all similar in concept: a female figure in neoclassical style representing liberty, wearing a "stola" and "pella" (gown and cloak, common in depictions of Roman goddesses) and holding a torch aloft. According to popular accounts, the face was modeled after that of Charlotte Beysser Bartholdi, the sculptor's mother, but Regis Huber, the curator of the Bartholdi Museum is on record as saying that this, as well as other similar speculations, have no basis in fact. He designed the figure with a strong, uncomplicated silhouette, which would be set off well by its dramatic harbor placement and allow passengers on vessels entering New York Bay to experience a changing perspective on the statue as they proceeded toward Manhattan. He gave it bold classical contours and applied simplified modeling, reflecting the huge scale of the project and its solemn purpose. Bartholdi wrote of his technique:


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Bartholdi made alterations in the design as the project evolved. Bartholdi considered having Liberty hold a broken chain, but decided this would be too divisive in the days after the Civil War. The erected statue does stride over a broken chain, half-hidden by her robes and difficult to see from the ground. Bartholdi was initially uncertain of what to place in Liberty's left hand; he settled on a "tabula ansata", used to evoke the concept of law. Though Bartholdi greatly admired the United States Constitution, he chose to inscribe on the tablet, thus associating the date of the country's Declaration of Independence with the concept of liberty.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Bartholdi interested his friend and mentor, architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, in the project. As chief engineer, Viollet-le-Duc designed a brick pier within the statue, to which the skin would be anchored.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: After consultations with the metalwork foundry Gaget, Gauthier & Co., Viollet-le-Duc chose the metal which would be used for the skin, copper sheets, and the method used to shape it, repoussé, in which the sheets were heated and then struck with wooden hammers. An advantage of this choice was that the entire statue would be light for its volume, as the copper need be only thick. Bartholdi had decided on a height of just over for the statue, double that of Italy's Sancarlone and the German statue of Arminius, both made with the same method.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: By 1875, France was enjoying improved political stability and a recovering postwar economy. Growing interest in the upcoming Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia led Laboulaye to decide it was time to seek public support. In September 1875, he announced the project and the formation of the Franco-American Union as its fundraising arm. With the announcement, the statue was given a name, "Liberty Enlightening the World". The French would finance the statue; Americans would be expected to pay for the pedestal. The announcement provoked a generally favorable reaction in France, though many Frenchmen resented the United States for not coming to their aid during the war with Prussia. French monarchists opposed the statue, if for no other reason than it was proposed by the liberal Laboulaye, who had recently been elected a senator for life. Laboulaye arranged events designed to appeal to the rich and powerful, including a special performance at the Paris Opera on April 25, 1876, that featured a new cantata by composer Charles Gounod. The piece was titled "La Liberté éclairant le monde", the French version of the statue's announced name.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Initially focused on the elites, the Union was successful in raising funds from across French society. Schoolchildren and ordinary citizens gave, as did 181 French municipalities. Laboulaye's political allies supported the call, as did descendants of the French contingent in the American Revolutionary War. Less idealistically, contributions came from those who hoped for American support in the French attempt to build the Panama Canal. The copper may have come from multiple sources and some of it is said to have come from a mine in Visnes, Norway, though this has not been conclusively determined after testing samples. According to Cara Sutherland in her book on the statue for the Museum of the City of New York, was needed to build the statue, and the French copper industrialist Eugène Secrétan donated of copper.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Although plans for the statue had not been finalized, Bartholdi moved forward with fabrication of the right arm, bearing the torch, and the head. Work began at the Gaget, Gauthier & Co. workshop. In May 1876, Bartholdi traveled to the United States as a member of a French delegation to the Centennial Exhibition, and arranged for a huge painting of the statue to be shown in New York as part of the Centennial festivities. The arm did not arrive in Philadelphia until August; because of its late arrival, it was not listed in the exhibition catalogue, and while some reports correctly identified the work, others called it the "Colossal Arm" or "Bartholdi Electric Light". The exhibition grounds contained a number of monumental artworks to compete for fairgoers' interest, including an outsized fountain designed by Bartholdi. Nevertheless, the arm proved popular in the exhibition's waning days, and visitors would climb up to the balcony of the torch to view the fairgrounds. After the exhibition closed, the arm was transported to New York, where it remained on display in Madison Square Park for several years before it was returned to France to join the rest of the statue.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: During his second trip to the United States, Bartholdi addressed a number of groups about the project, and urged the formation of American committees of the Franco-American Union. Committees to raise money to pay for the foundation and pedestal were formed in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. The New York group eventually took on most of the responsibility for American fundraising and is often referred to as the "American Committee". One of its members was 19-year-old Theodore Roosevelt, the future governor of New York and president of the United States. On March 3, 1877, on his final full day in office, President Grant signed a joint resolution that authorized the President to accept the statue when it was presented by France and to select a site for it. President Rutherford B. Hayes, who took office the following day, selected the Bedloe's Island site that Bartholdi had proposed.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: On his return to Paris in 1877, Bartholdi concentrated on completing the head, which was exhibited at the 1878 Paris World's Fair. Fundraising continued, with models of the statue put on sale. Tickets to view the construction activity at the Gaget, Gauthier & Co. workshop were also offered. The French government authorized a lottery; among the prizes were valuable silver plate and a terracotta model of the statue. By the end of 1879, about 250,000 francs had been raised.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The head and arm had been built with assistance from Viollet-le-Duc, who fell ill in 1879. He soon died, leaving no indication of how he intended to transition from the copper skin to his proposed masonry pier. The following year, Bartholdi was able to obtain the services of the innovative designer and builder Gustave Eiffel. Eiffel and his structural engineer, Maurice Koechlin, decided to abandon the pier and instead build an iron truss tower. Eiffel opted not to use a completely rigid structure, which would force stresses to accumulate in the skin and lead eventually to cracking. A secondary skeleton was attached to the center pylon, then, to enable the statue to move slightly in the winds of New York Harbor and as the metal expanded on hot summer days, he loosely connected the support structure to the skin using flat iron bars which culminated in a mesh of metal straps, known as "saddles", that were riveted to the skin, providing firm support. In a labor-intensive process, each saddle had to be crafted individually. To prevent galvanic corrosion between the copper skin and the iron support structure, Eiffel insulated the skin with asbestos impregnated with shellac.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Eiffel's design made the statue one of the earliest examples of curtain wall construction, in which the exterior of the structure is not load bearing, but is instead supported by an interior framework. He included two interior spiral staircases, to make it easier for visitors to reach the observation point in the crown. Access to an observation platform surrounding the torch was also provided, but the narrowness of the arm allowed for only a single ladder, long. As the pylon tower arose, Eiffel and Bartholdi coordinated their work carefully so that completed segments of skin would fit exactly on the support structure. The components of the pylon tower were built in the Eiffel factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The change in structural material from masonry to iron allowed Bartholdi to change his plans for the statue's assembly. He had originally expected to assemble the skin on-site as the masonry pier was built; instead, he decided to build the statue in France and have it disassembled and transported to the United States for reassembly in place on Bedloe's Island.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In a symbolic act, the first rivet placed into the skin, fixing a copper plate onto the statue's big toe, was driven by United States Ambassador to France Levi P. Morton. The skin was not, however, crafted in exact sequence from low to high; work proceeded on a number of segments simultaneously in a manner often confusing to visitors. Some work was performed by contractors—one of the fingers was made to Bartholdi's exacting specifications by a coppersmith in the southern French town of Montauban. By 1882, the statue was complete up to the waist, an event Barthodi celebrated by inviting reporters to lunch on a platform built within the statue. Laboulaye died in 1883. He was succeeded as chairman of the French committee by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal. The completed statue was formally presented to Ambassador Morton at a ceremony in Paris on July 4, 1884, and de Lesseps announced that the French government had agreed to pay for its transport to New York. The statue remained intact in Paris pending sufficient progress on the pedestal; by January 1885, this had occurred and the statue was disassembled and crated for its ocean voyage.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The committees in the United States faced great difficulties in obtaining funds for the construction of the pedestal. The Panic of 1873 had led to an economic depression that persisted through much of the decade. The Liberty statue project was not the only such undertaking that had difficulty raising money: construction of the obelisk later known as the Washington Monument sometimes stalled for years; it would ultimately take over three-and-a-half decades to complete. There was criticism both of Bartholdi's statue and of the fact that the gift required Americans to foot the bill for the pedestal. In the years following the Civil War, most Americans preferred realistic artworks depicting heroes and events from the nation's history, rather than allegorical works like the Liberty statue. There was also a feeling that Americans should design American public works—the selection of Italian-born Constantino Brumidi to decorate the Capitol had provoked intense criticism, even though he was a naturalized U.S. citizen. "Harper's Weekly" declared its wish that "M. Bartholdi and our French cousins had 'gone the whole figure' while they were about it, and given us statue and pedestal at once." "The New York Times" stated that "no true patriot can countenance any such expenditures for bronze females in the present state of our finances." Faced with these criticisms, the American committees took little action for several years.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The foundation of Bartholdi's statue was to be laid inside Fort Wood, a disused army base on Bedloe's Island constructed between 1807 and 1811. Since 1823, it had rarely been used, though during the Civil War, it had served as a recruiting station. The fortifications of the structure were in the shape of an eleven-point star. The statue's foundation and pedestal were aligned so that it would face southeast, greeting ships entering the harbor from the Atlantic Ocean.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In 1881, the New York committee commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design the pedestal. Within months, Hunt submitted a detailed plan, indicating that he expected construction to take about nine months. He proposed a pedestal in height; faced with money problems, the committee reduced that to .


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Hunt's pedestal design contains elements of classical architecture, including Doric portals, as well as some elements influenced by Aztec architecture. The large mass is fragmented with architectural detail, in order to focus attention on the statue. In form, it is a truncated pyramid, square at the base and at the top. The four sides are identical in appearance. Above the door on each side, there are ten disks upon which Bartholdi proposed to place the coats of arms of the states (between 1876 and 1889, there were 38 of them), although this was not done. Above that, a balcony was placed on each side, framed by pillars. Bartholdi placed an observation platform near the top of the pedestal, above which the statue itself rises. According to author Louis Auchincloss, the pedestal "craggily evokes the power of an ancient Europe over which rises the dominating figure of the Statue of Liberty". The committee hired former army General Charles Pomeroy Stone to oversee the construction work. Construction on the foundation began in 1883, and the pedestal's cornerstone was laid in 1884. In Hunt's original conception, the pedestal was to have been made of solid granite. Financial concerns again forced him to revise his plans; the final design called for poured concrete walls, up to thick, faced with granite blocks. This Stony Creek granite came from the Beattie Quarry in Branford, Connecticut. The concrete mass was the largest poured to that time.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Norwegian immigrant civil engineer Joachim Goschen Giæver designed the structural framework for the Statue of Liberty. His work involved design computations, detailed fabrication and construction drawings, and oversight of construction. In completing his engineering for the statue's frame, Giæver worked from drawings and sketches produced by Gustave Eiffel.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Fundraising in the US for the pedestal had begun in 1882. The committee organized a large number of money-raising events. As part of one such effort, an auction of art and manuscripts, poet Emma Lazarus was asked to donate an original work. She initially declined, stating she could not write a poem about a statue. At the time, she was also involved in aiding refugees to New York who had fled antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe. These refugees were forced to live in conditions that the wealthy Lazarus had never experienced. She saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue. The resulting sonnet, "The New Colossus", including the lines "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", is uniquely identified with the Statue of Liberty in American culture and is inscribed on a plaque in its museum.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Even with these efforts, fundraising lagged. Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York, vetoed a bill to provide $50,000 for the statue project in 1884. An attempt the next year to have Congress provide $100,000, sufficient to complete the project, also failed. The New York committee, with only $3,000 in the bank, suspended work on the pedestal. With the project in jeopardy, groups from other American cities, including Boston and Philadelphia, offered to pay the full cost of erecting the statue in return for relocating it.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the "New York World", a New York newspaper, announced a drive to raise $100,000—the equivalent of $2.3 million today. Pulitzer pledged to print the name of every contributor, no matter how small the amount given. The drive captured the imagination of New Yorkers, especially when Pulitzer began publishing the notes he received from contributors. "A young girl alone in the world" donated "60 cents, the result of self denial." One donor gave "five cents as a poor office boy's mite toward the Pedestal Fund." A group of children sent a dollar as "the money we saved to go to the circus with." Another dollar was given by a "lonely and very aged woman." Residents of a home for alcoholics in New York's rival city of Brooklyn—the cities would not merge until 1898—donated $15; other drinkers helped out through donation boxes in bars and saloons. A kindergarten class in Davenport, Iowa, mailed the "World" a gift of $1.35. As the donations flooded in, the committee resumed work on the pedestal. France raised about $250,000 to build the statue while the United States had to raise up to $300,000 to build the pedestal.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: On June 17, 1885, the French steamer "" arrived in New York with the crates holding the disassembled statue on board. New Yorkers displayed their newfound enthusiasm for the statue. Two hundred thousand people lined the docks and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the ship. After five months of daily calls to donate to the statue fund, on August 11, 1885, the "World" announced that $102,000 had been raised from 120,000 donors, and that 80 percent of the total had been received in sums of less than one dollar ().


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Even with the success of the fund drive, the pedestal was not completed until April 1886. Immediately thereafter, reassembly of the statue began. Eiffel's iron framework was anchored to steel I-beams within the concrete pedestal and assembled. Once this was done, the sections of skin were carefully attached. Due to the width of the pedestal, it was not possible to erect scaffolding, and workers dangled from ropes while installing the skin sections. Bartholdi had planned to put floodlights on the torch's balcony to illuminate it; a week before the dedication, the Army Corps of Engineers vetoed the proposal, fearing that ships' pilots passing the statue would be blinded. Instead, Bartholdi cut portholes in the torch—which was covered with gold leaf—and placed the lights inside them. A power plant was installed on the island to light the torch and for other electrical needs. After the skin was completed, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, co-designer of Manhattan's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, supervised a cleanup of Bedloe's Island in anticipation of the dedication. General Charles Stone claimed on the day of dedication that no man had died during the construction of the statue. This was not true, however, as Francis Longo, a thirty-nine year old Italian laborer, had been killed when an old wall fell on him.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: A ceremony of dedication was held on the afternoon of October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the event. On the morning of the dedication, a parade was held in New York City; estimates of the number of people who watched it ranged from several hundred thousand to a million. President Cleveland headed the procession, then stood in the reviewing stand to see bands and marchers from across America. General Stone was the grand marshal of the parade. The route began at Madison Square, once the venue for the arm, and proceeded to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan by way of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, with a slight detour so the parade could pass in front of the "World" building on Park Row. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders threw ticker tape from the windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: A nautical parade began at 12:45 p.m., and President Cleveland embarked on a yacht that took him across the harbor to Bedloe's Island for the dedication. De Lesseps made the first speech, on behalf of the French committee, followed by the chairman of the New York committee, Senator William M. Evarts. A French flag draped across the statue's face was to be lowered to unveil the statue at the close of Evarts's speech, but Bartholdi mistook a pause as the conclusion and let the flag fall prematurely. The ensuing cheers put an end to Evarts's address. President Cleveland spoke next, stating that the statue's "stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world". Bartholdi, observed near the dais, was called upon to speak, but he declined. Orator Chauncey M. Depew concluded the speechmaking with a lengthy address.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: No members of the general public were permitted on the island during the ceremonies, which were reserved entirely for dignitaries. The only females granted access were Bartholdi's wife and de Lesseps's granddaughter; officials stated that they feared women might be injured in the crush of people. The restriction offended area suffragists, who chartered a boat and got as close as they could to the island. The group's leaders made speeches applauding the embodiment of Liberty as a woman and advocating women's right to vote. A scheduled fireworks display was postponed until November 1 because of poor weather.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Shortly after the dedication, "The Cleveland Gazette", an African American newspaper, suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until the United States became a free nation "in reality":


title: Statue of Liberty

text: When the torch was illuminated on the evening of the statue's dedication, it produced only a faint gleam, barely visible from Manhattan. The "World" characterized it as "more like a glowworm than a beacon." Bartholdi suggested gilding the statue to increase its ability to reflect light, but this proved too expensive. The United States Lighthouse Board took over the Statue of Liberty in 1887 and pledged to install equipment to enhance the torch's effect; in spite of its efforts, the statue remained virtually invisible at night. When Bartholdi returned to the United States in 1893, he made additional suggestions, all of which proved ineffective. He did successfully lobby for improved lighting within the statue, allowing visitors to better appreciate Eiffel's design. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt, once a member of the New York committee, ordered the statue's transfer to the War Department, as it had proved useless as a lighthouse. A unit of the Army Signal Corps was stationed on Bedloe's Island until 1923, after which military police remained there while the island was under military jurisdiction.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Wars and other upheavals in Europe prompted large-scale emigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century; many entered through New York and saw the statue not as a symbol of enlightenment, as Bartholdi had intended, but as a sign of welcome to their new home. The association with immigration only became stronger when an immigrant processing station was opened on nearby Ellis Island. This view was consistent with Lazarus's vision in her sonnet—she described the statue as "Mother of Exiles"—but her work had become obscure. In 1903, the sonnet was engraved on a plaque that was affixed to the base of the statue.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Oral histories of immigrants record their feelings of exhilaration on first viewing the Statue of Liberty. One immigrant who arrived from Greece recalled:


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The statue rapidly became a landmark. Originally, it was a dull copper color, but shortly after 1900 a green patina, also called verdigris, caused by the oxidation of the copper skin, began to spread. As early as 1902 it was mentioned in the press; by 1906 it had entirely covered the statue. Believing that the patina was evidence of corrosion, Congress authorized for various repairs, and to paint the statue both inside and out. There was considerable public protest against the proposed exterior painting. The Army Corps of Engineers studied the patina for any ill effects to the statue and concluded that it protected the skin, "softened the outlines of the Statue and made it beautiful." The statue was painted only on the inside. The Corps of Engineers also installed an elevator to take visitors from the base to the top of the pedestal.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: On July 30, 1916, during World War I, German saboteurs set off a disastrous explosion on the Black Tom peninsula in Jersey City, New Jersey, in what is now part of Liberty State Park, close to Bedloe's Island. Carloads of dynamite and other explosives that were being sent to Britain and France for their war efforts were detonated. The statue sustained minor damage, mostly to the torch-bearing right arm, and was closed for ten days. The cost to repair the statue and buildings on the island was about . The narrow ascent to the torch was closed for public-safety reasons, and it has remained closed ever since.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: That same year, Ralph Pulitzer, who had succeeded his father Joseph as publisher of the "World", began a drive to raise for an exterior lighting system to illuminate the statue at night. He claimed over 80,000 contributors, but failed to reach the goal. The difference was quietly made up by a gift from a wealthy donor—a fact that was not revealed until 1936. An underwater power cable brought electricity from the mainland and floodlights were placed along the walls of Fort Wood. Gutzon Borglum, who later sculpted Mount Rushmore, redesigned the torch, replacing much of the original copper with stained glass. On December 2, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson pressed the telegraph key that turned on the lights, successfully illuminating the statue.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: After the United States entered World War I in 1917, images of the statue were heavily used in both recruitment posters and the Liberty bond drives that urged American citizens to support the war financially. This impressed upon the public the war's stated purpose—to secure liberty—and served as a reminder that embattled France had given the United States the statue.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge used his authority under the Antiquities Act to declare the statue a national monument. A suicide occurred five years later when a man climbed out of one of the windows in the crown and jumped to his death.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the statue to be transferred to the National Park Service (NPS). In 1937, the NPS gained jurisdiction over the rest of Bedloe's Island. With the Army's departure, the NPS began to transform the island into a park. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) demolished most of the old buildings, regraded and reseeded the eastern end of the island, and built granite steps for a new public entrance to the statue from its rear. The WPA also carried out restoration work within the statue, temporarily removing the rays from the statue's halo so their rusted supports could be replaced. Rusted cast-iron steps in the pedestal were replaced with new ones made of reinforced concrete; the upper parts of the stairways within the statue were replaced, as well. Copper sheathing was installed to prevent further damage from rainwater that had been seeping into the pedestal. The statue was closed to the public from May until December 1938.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: During World War II, the statue remained open to visitors, although it was not illuminated at night due to wartime blackouts. It was lit briefly on December 31, 1943, and on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when its lights flashed "dot-dot-dot-dash", the Morse code for V, for victory. New, powerful lighting was installed in 1944–1945, and beginning on V-E Day, the statue was once again illuminated after sunset. The lighting was for only a few hours each evening, and it was not until 1957 that the statue was illuminated every night, all night. In 1946, the interior of the statue within reach of visitors was coated with a special plastic so that graffiti could be washed away.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In 1956, an Act of Congress officially renamed Bedloe's Island as Liberty Island, a change advocated by Bartholdi generations earlier. The act also mentioned the efforts to found an American Museum of Immigration on the island, which backers took as federal approval of the project, though the government was slow to grant funds for it. Nearby Ellis Island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument by proclamation of President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. In 1972, the immigration museum, in the statue's base, was finally opened in a ceremony led by President Richard Nixon. The museum's backers never provided it with an endowment to secure its future and it closed in 1991 after the opening of an immigration museum on Ellis Island.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In 1970, Ivy Bottini led a demonstration at the statue where she and others from the National Organization for Women's New York chapter draped an enormous banner over a railing which read ""


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Beginning December 26, 1971, 15 anti-Vietnam War veterans occupied the statue, flying a US flag upside down from her crown. They left December 28 following a federal court order. The statue was also several times taken over briefly by demonstrators publicizing causes such as Puerto Rican independence, opposition to abortion, and opposition to US intervention in Grenada. Demonstrations with the permission of the Park Service included a Gay Pride Parade rally and the annual Captive Baltic Nations rally.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: A powerful new lighting system was installed in advance of the American Bicentennial in 1976. The statue was the focal point for Operation Sail, a regatta of tall ships from all over the world that entered New York Harbor on July 4, 1976, and sailed around Liberty Island. The day concluded with a spectacular display of fireworks near the statue.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The statue was examined in great detail by French and American engineers as part of the planning for its centennial in 1986. In 1982, it was announced that the statue was in need of considerable restoration. Careful study had revealed that the right arm had been improperly attached to the main structure. It was swaying more and more when strong winds blew and there was a significant risk of structural failure. In addition, the head had been installed off center, and one of the rays was wearing a hole in the right arm when the statue moved in the wind. The armature structure was badly corroded, and about two percent of the exterior plates needed to be replaced. Although problems with the armature had been recognized as early as 1936, when cast iron replacements for some of the bars had been installed, much of the corrosion had been hidden by layers of paint applied over the years.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In May 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced the formation of the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Centennial Commission, led by Chrysler Corporation chair Lee Iacocca, to raise the funds needed to complete the work. Through its fundraising arm, the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., the group raised more than $350 million in donations for the renovations of both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty was one of the earliest beneficiaries of a cause marketing campaign. A 1983 promotion advertised that for each purchase made with an American Express card, the company would contribute one cent to the renovation of the statue. The campaign generated contributions of $1.7 million to the restoration project.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: In 1984, the statue was closed to the public for the duration of the renovation. Workers erected the world's largest free-standing scaffold, which obscured the statue from view. Liquid nitrogen was used to remove layers of paint that had been applied to the interior of the copper skin over decades, leaving two layers of coal tar, originally applied to plug leaks and prevent corrosion. Blasting with baking soda powder removed the tar without further damaging the copper. The restorers' work was hampered by the asbestos-based substance that Bartholdi had used—ineffectively, as inspections showed—to prevent galvanic corrosion. Workers within the statue had to wear protective gear, dubbed "Moon suits", with self-contained breathing circuits. Larger holes in the copper skin were repaired, and new copper was added where necessary. The replacement skin was taken from a copper rooftop at Bell Labs, which had a patina that closely resembled the statue's; in exchange, the laboratory was provided some of the old copper skin for testing. The torch, found to have been leaking water since the 1916 alterations, was replaced with an exact replica of Bartholdi's unaltered torch. Consideration was given to replacing the arm and shoulder; the National Park Service insisted that they be repaired instead. The original torch was removed and replaced in 1986 with the current one, whose flame is covered in 24-karat gold. The torch reflects the Sun's rays in daytime and is lighted by floodlights at night.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The entire puddled iron armature designed by Gustave Eiffel was replaced. Low-carbon corrosion-resistant stainless steel bars that now hold the staples next to the skin are made of Ferralium, an alloy that bends slightly and returns to its original shape as the statue moves. To prevent the ray and arm making contact, the ray was realigned by several degrees. The lighting was again replaced—night-time illumination subsequently came from metal-halide lamps that send beams of light to particular parts of the pedestal or statue, showing off various details. Access to the pedestal, which had been through a nondescript entrance built in the 1960s, was renovated to create a wide opening framed by a set of monumental bronze doors with designs symbolic of the renovation. A modern elevator was installed, allowing handicapped access to the observation area of the pedestal. An emergency elevator was installed within the statue, reaching up to the level of the shoulder.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: July 3–6, 1986, was designated "Liberty Weekend", marking the centennial of the statue and its reopening. President Reagan presided over the rededication, with French President François Mitterrand in attendance. July 4 saw a reprise of Operation Sail, and the statue was reopened to the public on July 5. In Reagan's dedication speech, he stated, "We are the keepers of the flame of liberty; we hold it high for the world to see."


title: Statue of Liberty

text: Immediately following the September 11 attacks, the statue and Liberty Island were closed to the public. The island reopened at the end of 2001, while the pedestal and statue remained off-limits. The pedestal reopened in August 2004, but the National Park Service announced that visitors could not safely be given access to the statue due to the difficulty of evacuation in an emergency. The Park Service adhered to that position through the remainder of the Bush administration. New York Congressman Anthony Weiner made the statue's reopening a personal crusade. On May 17, 2009, President Barack Obama's Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, announced that as a "special gift" to America, the statue would be reopened to the public as of July 4, but that only a limited number of people would be permitted to ascend to the crown each day.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The statue, including the pedestal and base, closed on October 29, 2011, for installation of new elevators and staircases and to bring other facilities, such as restrooms, up to code. The statue was reopened on October 28, 2012, but then closed again a day later in advance of Hurricane Sandy. Although the storm did not harm the statue, it destroyed some of the infrastructure on both Liberty and Ellis Islands, including the dock used by the ferries that ran to Liberty and Ellis Islands. On November 8, 2012, a Park Service spokesperson announced that both islands would remain closed for an indefinite period for repairs to be done. Since Liberty Island had no electricity, a generator was installed to power temporary floodlights to illuminate the statue at night. The superintendent of Statue of Liberty National Monument, David Luchsinger—whose home on the island was severely damaged—stated that it would be "optimistically ... months" before the island was reopened to the public. The statue and Liberty Island reopened to the public on July 4, 2013. Ellis Island remained closed for repairs for several more months but reopened in late October 2013.


title: Statue of Liberty

text: The Statue of Liberty has also been closed due to government shutdowns and protests, as well as for disease pandemics. During the October 2013 United States federal government shutdown, Liberty Island and other federally funded sites were closed. In addition, Liberty Island was briefly closed on July 4, 2018, after a woman protesting against American immigration policy climbed onto the statue. However, the island remained open during the 2018–19 United States federal government shutdown because the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation had donated funds. It closed beginning on March 16, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 20, 2020, the Statue of Liberty reopened partially under New York City's Phase IV guidelines, with Ellis Island remaining closed. The crown did not reopen until October 2022.