The Champ de Mars
The Champ de Mars (English: Field of Mars) is a large public greenspace in Paris, France between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast.
History[]
During the French Revolution, the Champs de Mars was the scene of key events. On 14 July 1790, a year after the Storming of the Bastille, a crowd of some 300,000 attended the "Fête de la Fédération" in spite of inclement weather.[1] On 6 August 1792, French protestors gathered at the greenspace to petition the deposition of King Louis XVI few days before his capture and the establishment of the French Republic.[2] In November 1793, during the Reign of Terror, Paris' former mayor Jean Sylvain Bailly was tortured for two hours by a frenzied mob in one of the field's ditches before being beheaded by a guillotine they had built for him.[1]
On 8 June 1794, the Festival of the Supreme Being was held there, with Neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David and poet Marie-Joseph Chénier organizing the festivities to promote the new state religion.[3] As the French Templar Maximilien de Robespierre hosted the festival, the Templar Élise de la Serre and the former French Assassin Arno Dorian used the occasion to discredit him. De la Serre drugged his wine to cause hallucinations during his speech while Dorian found an incriminating list written by Robespierre naming the National Convention's deputies. Distributing the list to the deputies, they believed that Robespierre wanted to purge the Convention.[4]
Around 1795, Royalists stole two cannons from the National Guard and installed them on the Champs de Mars. Lieutenant Joachim Murat tasked Dorian to spike the cannons before he could led a charge. The Assassin succeeded, permitting to Murat and his men to attack.[5]
During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the Government of National Defense utilized the area as a training grounds for the public to fight against the invading Prussians.[6] Nearly twenty years later, the Eiffel Tower was built on the Champs de Mars in time for both the 1889 Paris Exposition and the French Revolution's centenary anniversary. Before its completion, the Austrian Templar Konstanze von Visler planned to frame the Assassins as terrorists by making them destroy the building to stop a supposed Templar plot that allegedly used the Tower to manipulate the Engine of History's predictive calculations in their favor. While the Assassins led by Michel Moulin set explosive devices to destroy the Tower, the British Assassin Simeon Price confronted von Visler and warned his brethren about the ruse, preventing the explosion.[7]
Appearances[]
- Project Widow (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: Unity (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: Le Champ de Mars
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – Database: 10 August
- ↑ Project Widow – The Festival of the Supreme Being
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – The Supreme Being
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Unity – Signaling Officer Murat
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 15
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot – Chapter 32