In several big cities of the world there is an area with a strange name Champ de Mars. What does it mean?
All these places are named after the Campus Martius of ancient Rome, and therefore, in order to understand the meaning of the numerous fields of Mars, we cannot do without an in-depth excursion into history. Let's figure out where this phenomenon came from, what form it has taken now.
Field of Mars: history
In ancient times, no one except the guards could enter the city with weapons. But what about the army? For her, in fact, barracks were built outside the walls. In fact, these were real military towns: in addition to the barracks, there was a hospital, weapons workshops, an arsenal, a field for training and training battles. All this together was called the campus (campus in Latin). Since the camp was occupied by the military, it was under the auspices of the god of war - Mars. In Rome, this place was located on the left bank of the Tiber, occupying a lowland between the hills of the Capitol, Pintius and Quirinal. A small altar to the warrior god stood in the center of the campus.
After the Tarquinian era, especially during the late Republic, the Campus Martius changed its status and appearance. Public meetings began to be arranged on it, sometimes military reviews, sports competitions were held.(centuriate comitia), even executions were carried out. Every year, the festival of Equirius was celebrated here with horse races and a cavalcade of chariots. Since the field was huge, several events were taking place at the same time, and many spectators could find entertainment to their liking.
The further fate of the Field of Mars
When Julius Caesar began to rule Rome, the military town moved to Celio Hill. Ordinary civilians of the city began to settle on the Field of Mars. But the name is preserved in toponymy. Subsequently, this huge crescent-shaped space began to be actively built up. Many interesting architectural structures were erected on it, for example, the Pantheon. Since the territory of the original military town included a cemetery where the ashes of the soldiers who fell for the fatherland were kept, in the future, citizens continued to honor their heroes in this place, for which the Pantheon temple was built, which adorns the Field of Mars. Rome has lost a large undeveloped space, but sacredly keeps the memory of this glorious place.
Other fields dedicated to fallen heroes
By analogy with the "Campus Martius" in Rome, similar places began to be created in other large cities. It is noteworthy that initially their purpose was the same as in the Eternal City. They performed a military function for the soldier's drill and ceremonial reviews. And only then, centuries later, they began to be perceived as memorials of glory to the heroes who died for the Fatherland.
In some cities, an eternal flame is lit in such squares. Naturally, in such places altars to Mars were no longer erected, but the name remained. Perhaps because there was a fashion for antiquity. Thus, fields dedicated to the god of war appeared in lands very far from Rome. What cities have the Champ de Mars? Paris, Athens, Nuremberg and even St. Petersburg. The most interesting both historically and architecturally is Champ de Mars in the capital of France. And the most instructive - in the German city of Nuremberg.
Paris parade ground for military maneuvers
In 1751, King Louis XV of France ordered the construction of a military school on the left bank of the Seine. Boys from impoverished noble families were supposed to study there (it is known that one of the cadets in this institution was the young Napoleon Bonaparte). Adjacent to the school was a vast, level meadow intended for military exercises. Here the king also hosted parades. This space near the Louvre was named Champ de Mars.
Paris appreciated this vast area suitable for the gathering of a large number of people. Here the first constitution was sworn. Some events of the French Revolution of 1791 also took place on this field. A large undeveloped space almost in the center of the city was used by the Parisians for various needs. Here, not only folk festivals were held, but also the first experiments on mastering the airspace were made. In 1784, Blanchard, a pioneer in this area, took to the skies from the Champ de Mars in a controlled balloon.
Good addition. Majestic Monument
Field of Mars,Spread over more than twenty hectares along the Quai Branly, unlike its Roman counterpart, it remained undeveloped. It played the role of a city hippodrome in 1833-1860, then exhibitions of world scientific achievements began to be held here. Therefore, when Gustave Eiffel presented Paris with the project of his tower, it was decided to build it near the Champ de Mars. The iron openwork design surprisingly fit into the green frame of the lawns. Millions of tourists now flock to the city to view and photograph the Eiffel Tower from the Champ de Mars. The natural edging of the field is the golden dome of the building of the Invalides and the Military School. Therefore, the Parisians themselves like to arrange picnics on the grass of lawns, coming to the field even in the evening with candles.
Champ de Mars in Athens
This memorial in modern Greek is called Πεδίον του Άρεως (Pedion tou Areos). It was built in 1934 to honor the heroes of the national liberation revolution of 1821. By analogy with the Parisian Champ de Mars, the monument was dedicated to the god of war - Areos. It is noteworthy that you will not see his statue anywhere, but the sculpture of Pallas Athena crowns the memorial of glory. Unlike the green meadows of the French capital, this monument is a shady park. The microclimate of the green zone in the very center of the city (from here it is only a kilometer to Omonia Square) is such that in summer the temperature here is two degrees lower than elsewhere in Athens. In front of the main entrance, there is a statue of the Greek king Constantine I on horseback. In the park exceptbusts of twenty-one heroes of the revolution there is also a grave of British, New Zealand and Australian soldiers who fell in battle for Greece during the Second World War.
History of the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg
A century after St. Petersburg was founded, the Field of Mars was created in this city. However, initially it was called Amusing, because the Maslenitsa festivities took place on the undeveloped territory. It was located a little to the west of the Summer Garden. In the 18th century, this place began to be called the Big Meadow.
The name and functions of the place changed when Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ascended the throne. The field began to be respectfully called Tsaritsyn Meadow. It hosted military reviews and parades. And since in Russia there has always been a fashion for Paris, at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries it was decided to call Tsaritsyn Lug the Field of Mars. Pavel I ordered to enclose part of the rapidly built-up area with a wrought-iron grating, to lay out a park with lawns and alleys. In 1801, by order of the same emperor, monuments were erected to the commanders Suvorov and Rumyantsev.
Transformation from meadow to square
Years passed, St. Petersburg developed, and along with it, changes also affected the Field of Mars. The two sculptures that adorned it moved to other places in the city. So, the monument to the commander P. A. Rumyantsev, the work of the architect V. F. Brenn, was moved in 1818 to Vasilyevsky Island. And during the reign of Emperor Alexander I, the sculpture of the great field marshal was also moved. Now she stands opposite the Trinity Bridge, next toMarble Palace and S altykov's Count's House. In fact, this is also part of the Tsaritsyno Meadow, only separated into a separate area, named after the field marshal.
The monument to Suvorov on the Field of Mars, on the Moika, is worth a special mention. In the Russian Empire, this was the first monument to an uncrowned person. Sculptor M. I. Kozlovsky, who worked on the monument by decree of Paul I in 1799-1800, did not particularly care about the portrait resemblance of the statue and the original. It is, rather, a collective, epic image of the victorious commander. The bronze figure on a pedestal is dressed in an antique toga. She holds a sword in her right hand and a shield in her left. Suvorov appears before us in the guise of Mars, the god of war.
Transformation into Glory Memorial
After the Champ de Mars lost the monuments of two commanders, nothing more indicated the relation of this place to war and battles. However, the name remains. Therefore, when the question arose of where to bury the people who fell during the February Revolution of 1917, there was no other proposal: the mass grave should be located on the Field of Mars. Later, new burials of workers killed in the Yaroslavl uprising in the summer of 1918, participants in the defense of the city from the troops of Yudenich, as well as dead figures of the revolution M. Uritsky, V. Volodarsky, Latvian riflemen and others began to appear there. It was decided to perpetuate the memory of the heroes by opening a memorial. It was built from gray and pink granite. The opening was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the October Revolution. But the field itself was renamed the Square of Victims of the Revolution.
The Arena of Victory Turned into a Place of Shame
In March 1935, Nazi Germany decided to acquire its own Field of Mars. It was supposed to be not just a place for maneuvers and drills for the Wehrmacht troops. It was planned to hold party congresses here, as well as a parade in honor of the liberation of the world from the "plague of communism and Semitic dominance." That is why it was supposed to be the construction of the century - the largest Champ de Mars in Europe. Photos of those years show that the space allocated for the parade ground was equal to the size of eighty football fields! In the same spirit of megalomania, there were stands designed for 250,000 spectators. The arena was to be surrounded by twenty-four towers (eleven of them were built by 1945), and the Fuhrer's podium was to be crowned with a sculptural group of the goddess of victory, Victoria, with warriors. And what came of it? Let's just say that a grandiose parade ground was conceived in Nuremberg, where, as you know, hearings were held on the process of Nazis accused of crimes against humanity. A truly enlightening story!
