Champ de Mars, Paris

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Champ de Mars (disambiguation).

View southeast from the top level of the Eiffel Tower, down the Champ de Mars, with the Tour Montparnasse (Montparnasse Tower) in the distance. The Ecole Militaire is one third down from the top of the picture.

The Champ de Mars (IPA: [ʃɑ̃ də maʁs]) is a large public green-space in Paris, France, located in the 7th arrondissement, between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after the Campus Martius of Rome. Champ de Mars means "Field of Mars", after Mars the Roman god of war. It was named for its original use of military drills.

The nearest Métro stations are Champ de Mars - Tour Eiffel and École Militaire.

[edit] Champ de Mars Massacre (French Revolution)

During the French Revolution, the Champ de Mars was the setting of the Fête de la Fédération, on the 14 July 1790. It was also the setting of a massacre on July 17, 1791, when a crowd collected to draft a petition seeking the removal of King Louis XVI. This happened just days after the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. After being fired on by assassins in the crowd, soldiers under the martial law orders of the mayor Jean-Sylvain Bailly opened fire. The Marquis de Lafayette was later accused by Jean-Paul Marat, a radical writer, of being involved in the fight. Lafayette was not trusted because he was an aristocrat, though he had been associated with revolutionary culture since his active involvement in the American War of Independence. However it is known that Lafayette was in charge of the National Guard that day.