Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 10/07/2026 23:13:00

Stretching 780 metres from the Eiffel Tower to the Ecole Militaire, this broad formal garden on the Left Bank of Paris has served alternately as a military parade ground, a site of revolutionary festivals, a venue for world fairs, and the city's most iconic public park. The name derives from the Campus Martius of ancient Rome, reflecting its original function as a drill field for the cadets of the military academy whose neoclassical facade closes the southeastern vista. The grounds hosted five of the eleven Paris World's Fairs between 1867 and 1937, each leaving traces in the landscape. The Eiffel Tower, constructed as the entrance arch for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, was intended as a temporary structure but became permanently anchored to the park's northwestern end. The Champ de Mars hosted the 1900 fencing events and the 1924 Olympic rugby and football matches, and was designated the venue for beach volleyball during the 2024 Paris Olympics. Today the park is laid out as a series of gravel allees, symmetrical lawns bordered by low hedges, and a central axis of ornamental plantings leading the eye from the tower's iron lattice to the Ecole Militaire dome. Informal recreation dominates: picnicking on the grass, petanque on the gravel courts near the Avenue de Suffren edge, and tourist photography from the Trocadero fountains across the river. The Mur de la Paix, a glass peace wall inscribed with the word peace in 32 languages, stands at the Ecole Militaire end. Underground, a 250-car parking facility serves visitors. Metro stations Bir-Hakeim and Ecole Militaire bracket the park to the northwest and southeast respectively. During the Revolution the Champ de Mars hosted the Festival of the Federation on 14 July 1790, attended by 300,000 Parisians, and the Massacre of the Champ de Mars in 1791. The park remains the assembly point for mass demonstrations and celebrations. Its flat lawns accommodate temporary grandstands for state events, and the southern gardens contain playgrounds, puppet theatres, and a carousel for children.