Bassins du Champ de Mars

The Bassins du Champ de Mars are a series of rectangular reflecting pools situated directly on the Place Jacques Rueff, right in the center of the vast park space. These pools were constructed over a twenty-year period between nineteen-oh-eight and nineteen-twenty-eight. They serve as a serene, linear anchor between the military grandeur of the École Militaire to the southeast and the iron lattice of the Eiffel Tower to the northwest. While much of the surrounding park has undergone drastic changes since the eighteenth century, these basins were designed to provide a sense of architectural symmetry and calm to the open esplanade.