You need permission to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night

Rumours that it’s illegal to take photos of the Eiffel Tower at night have been knocking around the internet for years now, and we’re here to set the record straight.

As it turns out, snaps of the world-famous landmark are, in fact, restricted once the sun sets, and it’s all to do with copyright laws.

Engineer Gustave Eiffel - whose company built the Tower - held its copyright for 70 years after his death in 1923, but that copyright has now expired. However, the Tower’s 20,000 light bulbs were installed in 1985 by Pierre Bideau, so snaps of the monument at night can be in violation of copyright law.

Gavin Hellier / Alamy Stock Photo

Thankfully, that doesn’t impact the average tourist, it just means that professional photographers wanting to capture the Tower at night will need to seek permission before doing so.

As the tower’s official website explains: “Photographing the Eiffel Tower at night is not illegal at all. Any individual can take photos and share them on social networks. But the situation is different for professionals.

“The Eiffel Tower’s lighting and sparkling lights are protected by copyright, so professional use of images of the Eiffel Tower at night require prior authorisation and may be subject to a fee. Professionals should therefore contact the Eiffel Tower's management company to learn about conditions for using the images depending on the case.”

Being one of the most iconic structures in the world, the Eiffel Tower has a belting history, having first opened on 31 March 1889.

Steely by day and lit up like a Christmas tree by night, it might come as a surprise to learn that when the Tower opened over 100 years ago, it was actually painted a reddish-brown colour.

Sergey Borisov / Alamy Stock Photo

In 1899, the Tower had been coated in yellow paint before going back to its original reddish-brown in 1954.

It wasn’t until 1968 that the specially-mixed ‘Eiffel Tower Brown’ colour paint was applied.

Every seven years, painters lather the structure in 60 tonnes of paint to keep it looking fresh, and the tones of said paint get subtly lighter the higher up the tower they're applied.

What’s more, Eiffel was actually commissioned to work on the tower because he won a competition commemorating the fall of the Bastille and the launch of the French Revolution 100 years earlier.

Out of 107 proposals, Eiffel was selected alongside engineers, Maurice Koechlin, Emile Nouguier, and architect Stephen Sauvestre.

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