Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Nelson-Mandela Garden, formerly the Halles Garden, is a four-hectare green space located in the heart of the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Created in the 1980s, it occupies the site of the former Halles de Paris, demolished in 1973, and rests on a slab covering the Forum des Halles, a commercial and cultural centre. It includes lawns, plantations, a children's garden, an underground tropical greenhouse (deleted in 2016) and René Cassin Square, set up in an amphitheater. The garden was designed by architect Louis Arretch and opened to the public in 1988.

The garden was renamed in 2013 as a tribute to Nelson Mandela (1918–2013), a historic figure in the fight against apartheid and President of South Africa (1994–1999). This decision, proposed by Mayor Bertrand Delanoë after Mandela's death, was formalized by a plaque unveiled on 19 December 2013. The site, bounded by Rambuteau, Berger, de Viarmes and la Canopée, is a major crossing point, served by the Châtelet-Les Halles station, the largest transport hub in Île-de-France.

Between 2010 and 2018, the garden underwent a renovation parallel to the Forum des Halles. The tropical greenhouse has been replaced by an underground room dedicated to the parkour (Centr'Halles Park), while on the surface, children's playgrounds have been set up. The garden includes works of art such as Listening and Sun Dial with fibre optics from Henry by Miller, or Vizitor by Barry Flanagan. Its aisles, such as Jules-Supervielle (lined with lime trees) and Saint-John-Perse (with fountains), structure the space around René-Cassin Square.

The garden is a symbolic vestige of the former Paris Halles, once the central market feeding the capital. Its layout on slab, above underground infrastructures (Forum, railway station, road), makes it a unique example of urban green space integrated into a multifunctional complex. Close to the church of Saint-Eustache and the Bourse de Commerce, it illustrates the transformation of the district, which has been transformed from a historical trading pole to a modern crossroads combining transport, commerce and culture.

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