At the time when it still stood at the entrance to Vitry-le-François, the Porte du Pont saw all the European aristocracy file by: Stanslas I, King of Poland, who used it for the first time in 1748, up to Napoleon, via Marie Leszczynska, the wife of Louis XV, and Marie-Antoinette, the future queen of France. The porte du Pont soon sobered up from these prestigious visits when, in 1870, it saw the arrival of the Prussian army and, almost 50 years later, the Germans. But this time, going in the opposite direction.