Victor Noir, A French Journalist Who Became A Fertility Symbol

Victor Noir was a French journalist who was born on July 27, 1848. He chose the pen name "Victor Noir" after his mother's maiden name.

He relocated to Paris and started working as an apprentice journalist.

After his death, a popular French artiste sculpted a life-sized bronze statue to mark his tomb, depicting him in a realistic style as if he had just fallen on the street, dropping his hat, which is represented beside him and a significant bulge beneath his trouser. The Sculpture however became famous among ladies.

Prince Pierre Bonaparte, a cousin of French Emperor Napoleon III, shot and murdered him.

In nineteenth-century Paris, Victor Noir worked as a journalist for the newspaper La Marseillaise. Paschal Grousset, the editor of the newspaper, was challenged to a duel by Prince Pierre Bonaparte, the cousin of the then-ruling Emperor Napoleon III.

The reason was the publication of a contentious article about Napoleon Bonaparte, the prince's great-uncle. Grousset accepted the duel and dispatched his seconds (one of whom was Noir) to determine the day and location. Regrettably, an altercation broke out during the conversation. Bonaparte drew out his revolver and shot Victor to death.

The assassination of a journalist by a member of the emperor's family incensed a population already unsatisfied with the country's political condition, resulting in several violent riots on the streets of France.

Victor Noir became a revolutionary symbol, and over 100,000 people attended his funeral at Neuilly's local cemetery. Despite this, the Prussians invaded France later that year, destroying the French Empire on September 4, 1870.

The Strange Fame of The Dead Journalist

The Père-Lachaise Cemetery is Paris's largest cemetery. Numerous renowned figures are buried there. Yet, the tomb that has attracted worldwide attention for the most unique reasons is that of an average young man named Victor Noir.

Contrary to popular belief, it was not his death or the political implications of the shooting that made Victor Noir famous. It was his final resting place.

Victor Noir's body was transported from his village to Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris twenty years after his death, in 1891, following the foundation of the Third French Republic. Jules Dalou, a renowned French artist, was commissioned to create the bronze sculpture for Noir's grave.

Dalou chose to show Victor Noir as he died, laying flat on the ground after being shot. For unknown reasons, he decided to give the sculpture a significant bulge under the belt, which sparked the construction of a rather weird tale that eventually turned Victor Noir's tomb into a symbol of fertility and sexual satisfaction.

It is thought that kissing the Victor Noir statue on the lips, rubbing the bulge in his trousers, and dropping a flower in his hat will bring more fertility and a wonderful sex life. 

To be more exact, if you want to find a lovely partner, kiss Noir's lips; if you want to get pregnant, touch his right foot; and if you want to have twins, touch his left foot. A baby will be born soon after, and single women will find a husband within a year, according to the myth.

The statue itself is evidence that people take this idea seriously; Victor Noir's lips, groin, and shoes are gleaming, while the rest of his body has an oxidized bronze greenish tone. As a result, a fence was erected around Noir's statue in 2004 with the warning sign: "Any damage caused by graffiti or indecent rubbing will be prosecuted." Yet, this infuriated so many women that the fence was quickly demolished.

Women who became pregnant after visiting Victor Noir's tomb now return to the cemetery to express their gratitude, placing photos of their children and other objects in the hat near the statue.