The Champ de Mars (; ) is a large public greenspace in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, located in the seventh ''arrondissement'', between the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

to the northwest and the

École Militaire École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

to the southeast. The park is named after the

Campus Martius The Campus Martius (Latin for 'Field of Mars'; Italian: ''Campo Marzio'') was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which covers ...

("Mars Field") in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, which was dedicated to the god Mars. The name alludes to the fact that the lawns here were formerly used as drilling and marching grounds by the French military. The nearest Métro stations are

La Motte-Picquet–Grenelle LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

, and Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel, an RER suburban-commuter-railway station. A disused station,

Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...

, is also nearby.

History

Originally, the Champ de Mars was part of a large flat open area called

Grenelle Grenelle () is a neighbourhood in southwestern Paris, France. It is a part of the 15th arrondissement of the city. There is currently a Boulevard de Grenelle which runs along the North delimitation of the ''quartier'', and a Rue de Grenelle, ...

, which was reserved for

market garden A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to s ...

ing. Citizens would claim small plots and exploit them by growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers for the local market. However, the plain of Grenelle was not an especially fertile place for farming. The construction, in 1765, of the ''

'' designed by

Ange-Jacques Gabriel Ange-Jacques Gabriel (; 23 October 1698 – 4 January 1782) was the principal architect of King Louis XV of France. His major works included the Place de la Concorde, the École Militaire, and the Petit Trianon and opera theater at the Palace of ...

, was the first step toward the Champ de Mars in its present form. Grounds for military drills were originally planned for an area south of the school, the current location of the ''

place de Fontenoy The Place de Fontenoy () is a square in Paris, France, named after the victory of Maréchal Maurice de Saxe in the Battle of Fontenoy. At number 7 is the World Heritage Centre,UNESCOContact and visit Unesco/ref> the headquarters of the UNESCO ...

''. The choice to build an esplanade to the north of the school led to the erection of the noble facade which today encloses the Champ de Mars. The planners leveled the ground, surrounded it with a large ditch and a long avenue of elms, and, as a final touch, the esplanade was enclosed by a fine grille-work fence. The Isle of Swans, formerly a

riverine A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it run ...

islet at the location of the northeastern foot of the

, was, for the sake of symmetry and pleasing perspectives, attached to the shore. (The Isle of Swans discussed here should not be confused with the Isle of Swans that sits in the middle of the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

downstream and around the next bend in the river, between the

fifteenth In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

and sixteenth arrondissements.)

Jacques Charles Jacques Alexandre César Charles (12 November 1746 – 7 April 1823) was a French people, French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due ...

and the

Robert brothers Les Frères Robert were two French brothers. Anne-Jean Robert (1758–1820) and Nicolas-Louis Robert (1760–1828) were the engineers who built the world's first hydrogen balloon for professor Jacques Charles, which flew from central Paris on ...

launched the world's first hydrogen-filled balloon from the Champ-de-Mars on 27 August 1783. This place witnessed the spectacle and pageantry of some of the best-remembered festivals of the French Revolution. On 14 July 1790 the first "Federation Day" celebration (''fête de la Fédération''), now known as

Bastille Day Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. It is referred to, both legally and commonly, as () in French, though ''la fête nationale'' is also u ...

, was held on the Champ de Mars, exactly one year after the storming of the prison. The following year, on 17 July 1791, the massacre on the Champ de Mars took place.

Jean Sylvain Bailly Jean Sylvain Bailly (; 15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the mayor of ...

, the first mayor of Paris, became a victim of his own revolution, and was guillotined there on 12 November 1793. The Champ de Mars was also the site of the Festival of the Supreme Being on 8 June 1794. With a design by the painter

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

, a massive "Altar of the Nation" was built atop an artificial mountain and surmounted by a tree of liberty. The festival is regarded as the most successful of its type in the Revolution. During the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...

a restored Napoleon held the

Champ de Mai The Champ de Mai (; "Field of May") was a public assembly held by Napoleon on the Champ de Mars, Paris, a large open area near the École militaire, on 1 June 1815. This was during the Hundred Days, the period between Napoleon's return from exile ...

ceremony, during which he swore to uphold the

Charter of 1815 The Charter of 1815, signed on 22 April 1815, was the French constitution prepared by Benjamin Constant at the request of Napoleon I when he returned from exile on Elba. Officially named the Additional Act to the Constitutions of the Empire, the ...

, at the Champ de Mars. The Champ de Mars was the site of Expositions Universelles in

1867 There were only 354 days this year in the newly purchased territory of Alaska. When the territory transferred from the Russian Empire to the United States, the calendric transition from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar was made with only 1 ...

1878 Events January * January 5 – Russo-Turkish War: Battle of Shipka Pass IV – Russian and Bulgarian forces defeat the Ottoman Empire. * January 9 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy. * January 17 – Russo-Turkish War: ...

1889 Events January * January 1 ** The total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 is seen over parts of California and Nevada. ** Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka experiences a vision, leading to the start of the Ghost Dance movement in the Dakotas ...

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

, and

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

In art, culture, film and sport

Art and culture

In 2012, the

United Buddy Bears ''Buddy Bears'' are painted, life-size fiberglass bear sculptures developed by German businesspeople Klaus and Eva Herlitz, in cooperation with sculptor Roman Strobl. They have become a landmark of Berlin and are considered unofficial ambassa ...

exhibit was held on the Champ de Mars, an international art exhibition with more than 140 two-meter-tall bears representing individual countries. They promote peace, love, tolerance and international understanding and are displayed across the planet. They stand at Champ de Mars in Paris, fronting the Eiffel Tower.

Use in film and television

Champ de Mars was used as a filming location in the 1985

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

film ''

A View to a Kill ''A View to a Kill'' is a 1985 spy film, the fourteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from ...

'', in which Bond (played for the last time by

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the actor to portray Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the ...

) drove a

Renault 11 Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number) * One of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011 Literature *Eleven (novel), ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''Eleven'', a 1970 collection of short stories by Patricia Highsmi ...

taxi which he had hijacked at the

in pursuit of a mysterious assassin, later revealed to be May Day (

Grace Jones Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a Jamaican singer, songwriter, model and actress. She began her Model (person), modelling career in New York State, then in Paris, working for fashion houses such as Yves Saint Laurent (brand), Yves St ...

Sports

Champ de Mars contains both a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

court and a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

field. For the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

and

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

, a temporary stadium known as the Eiffel Tower Stadium () was erected atop the Place Jacques-Rueff, and hosted the

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two to four players each on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side o ...

and

blind football Football 5-a-side, more commonly known as blind football or blind soccer, is a variation of association football designed for players who are blind or visually impaired. It is currently a Paralympic sport, and the International Blind Sports A ...

tournaments at the games. The

Grand Palais Éphémère The Grand Palais éphémère is a temporary exhibition hall in the Champ de Mars by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The 10,000 m2 hall opened in 2021 and is meant to be dismantled in 2024. Its purpose is to host exhibitions while the Grand Pala ...

was built in 2021 at the south end of the Champ to host Olympic events and conventions displaced by the renovation of the

Grand Palais The (; ), commonly known as the , is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, France. Construction of the began in 1897 following the demolitio ...

. Portions of the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

were held at the Champ.

Gallery

File:Fête de la Fédération 1790, Musée de la Révolution française - Vizille.jpg, Illustration of the ''Fête de la Fédération'' at Champ de Mars, July 14, 1790 (

Musée de la Révolution française The Musée de la Révolution française (Museum of the French Revolution) is a departments of France, departmental museum in the French town of Vizille, south of Grenoble on the Route Napoléon. It is the only museum in the world dedicated to the ...

). File:Jaures-Histoire Socialiste-I-p733.PNG, Illustration of massacre on the Champ-de-Mars, 1791. File:Fête de l'Etre suprême 2.jpg, Painting of ''The Festival of the Supreme Being'', June 8, 1794 (by

Pierre-Antoine Demachy Pierre-Antoine Demachy (17 September 1723 – 10 September 1807) was a French artist who specialized in painting ruins, Trompe-l'œil architectural decorations and imaginative scenes of Paris. Biography Demachy was born in Paris as the son of a ...

, 1794). File:Fête de la Concorde, arrivée des corporations au Champ-de-Mars.jpg, Illustration of Fête de la Concorde, May 21, 1848. File:Exposition Universelle 1867.jpg, Photograph of , 1867. File:Panorama des Palais.JPG, Panoramic view of , 1878. File:Tour Eiffel exposition universelle 1889.jpg, View of , 1889. File:Expo universelle paris 1900.JPG, Illustration of , 1900. File:Champ-de-Mars.jpg, Champ de Mars at night (2007). File:Eiffel Tower and Mars fields.jpg, Champ de Mars – view from the

Montparnasse Tower Tour Maine-Montparnasse (Maine-Montparnasse Tower), also commonly named Tour Montparnasse, is a office skyscraper in the Montparnasse area of Paris, France. Constructed from 1969 to 1973, it was the tallest skyscraper in France until 2011, whe ...

(2010) File:North end of Champ de Mars and Quai Branly - As viewed from the Eiffel Tower (2016).jpg, The north end of Champ de Mars and Quai Branly – As viewed from the Eiffel Tower (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Champ De Mars Parks and open spaces in Paris World's fair sites in Paris Exposition Universelle (1900) Buildings and structures in the 7th arrondissement of Paris Venues of the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic volleyball venues Beach volleyball venues