Champ-de-Juillet, Public park near Benedictins Station in Limoges, France
Champ-de-Juillet is a landscaped park spanning about 2.7 hectares near Benedictins Station, featuring flowerbeds and a large central basin with ornamental plants. Multiple walking paths connect the space to the station and Place Denis-Dussoubs.
The land was farmland and the site of the Saint-Martin-lez-Limoges abbey, later the Feuillants convent, until a Champ de Mars was laid out for the 9th Chasseurs regiment. The town bought the area in 1827 and used it as a fairground, hosting the Exposition du Centre de la France in 1858. That year the landscaper Eugène Bühler, creator of Lyon's Parc de la Tête d'or, redesigned it as a public promenade, inaugurated on 5 June 1859; Roger Gonthier, architect of the station, reworked it in 1925.
The name Champ de Juillet refers to the July Revolution of 1830. Today the park hosts the Lire à Limoges book fair and the festivities of the Fête nationale on 14 July, and it is the usual end point of protest marches and political rallies, such as the Nouveau Front populaire meeting in 2024.
The park lies on the axis between Bénédictins station and Place Denis-Dussoubs, so it works as a through-route on foot. The ground rises in terraces: a lawn with a bench at the lower level, then a shallow circular pool with a fountain, then stone steps up to an arched opening in a pale stone wall. The park covers 2.7 hectares, over five with the car parks.
The park's name refers to the July Revolution of 1830, not to the month of its creation. Before the railway arrived, the site held the abbey of Saint-Martin-lez-Limoges, later the Feuillants convent, and stayed farmland until a Champ de Mars was laid out for the 9th Chasseurs regiment.
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