Champ de Mars massacre

You are standing on the Champ de Mars, a site defined today by leisure but once the stage for a violent rupture in the French Revolution. On July 17, 1791, this expansive field became a killing ground when the National Guard, under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette, opened fire on a massive crowd of citizens. These people had gathered to sign a petition demanding the removal of King Louis XVI, who had lost the public trust after his failed attempt to flee the country earlier that summer. The violence shattered the image of the National Guard as a protector of the people and forever darkened the legacy of heroes like Lafayette and Paris mayor Jean Sylvain Bailly in the eyes of the Parisian public.