Fête de la Fédération
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Champ de Mars is a large public greenspace in Paris, France, located in the seventh arrondissement, between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after the Campus Martius ("Mars Field") in Rome, a tribute to the Roman god of war. The name also alludes to the fact that the lawns here were formerly used as drilling and marching grounds by the French military.
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. Soldiers under the orders of the mayor Jean-Sylvain Bailly and the Marquis de Lafayette opened fire.
The Champ de Mars was the site of Expositions Universelles in 1867, 1878 and 1889.
The nearest Métro stations are La Motte-Picquet–Grenelle and École Militaire. Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel, an RER suburban-commuter-railway station, is also nearby.
