Place de l'Indépendance is the square at the symbolic centre of independent Togo: the Independence Monument at its middle, the National Museum and the Maison du RPT on one side, the Hôtel 2 Février rising over it on the other, and the Boulevard du Mono running between it and the sea. It is the site of every national day parade, every official welcome and every major political ceremony.
In normal times the square is a calm public space, more impressive for the architecture around it than for anything on the square itself. The combination of late-French-colonial neoclassicism, post-independence brutalism, and the slim white pylon of the monument makes a coherent and slightly melancholy ensemble — the visual history of Togo's first half-century compressed into one block. It is the natural starting point for any walking tour of the centre.