The main civic plaza of Port-au-Prince, a long park in front of the ruins of the national cathedral and flanked by the National Palace (severely damaged in 2010) and the MUPANAH museum. The plaza takes its name from the Champ de Mars in Paris and was the ceremonial heart of the Haitian capital from the 18th century onwards.
Large statues of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution stand around the park: Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines, Christophe, and Pétion. The central monument to the Unknown Maroon — a muscular figure blowing a conch shell — has become one of the most reproduced images of Haitian national identity. In better times this was a lively public space; even now it retains its symbolic importance as the geographical and historical centre of the republic.