ParisLongchamp Racecourse Theatre of dreams

History

The Champ-de-Mars, where autumn race meetings were held in increasingly difficult conditions, was clearly not fit for purpose and so under the pressure of the Duke of Morny, the Bois de Boulogne was chosen as the location for a new Paris racecourse.

In 1856, the Paris municipality granted la Société d’Encouragement the site of La Plaine de Longchamp, which had previously formed part of the estate of the eponymous Abbey. One year later, on 27 April 1857, the first meeting was held in the presence of Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, as well as a great many of the numerous racing enthusiasts who belonged to high society during the Second Empire. The first winner at Longchamp was the appropriately named Eclaireur, meaning Pathfinder in English.

In 1863, the Grand Prix de Paris was created. It remained the most lucrative race in the world up until the First World War.

The three wars endured by the capital would not leave the racecourse unscathed. It was bombed during the Siege of the Paris in 1870, and during the First World War was transformed first into a stockyard and then into a field hospital by the Americans, before finally being used an airfield.
In the period between these two conflicts, the wooden stands were rebuilt in stone (in 1904). Today, it is still possible appreciate their grandeur as one of the stands in the middle of the home straight has been preserved.

Between the two World Wars, Longchamp regained its former lustre. On the day of the Grand Prix de Paris, it regularly received more than 100,000 spectators, spread between the the scales area, the weighing room, and the viewing lawn.

In 1943, Longchamp was bombed again, including during a race meeting, because the Germans had transformed the viewing lawn into an anti-aircraft position.

In truth, this was not the first time that Longchamp had played host to the military. From 1867, military reviews had taken place on the tracks, and from 1880, when the 14 July had become a national holiday, Longchamp was the site of a military parade, attended by tens of thousands of spectators. The latter lasted until 1923.

Between 1962 and 1967, the stands were again partially rebuilt in a similar style to the constructions they replaced, which were all moved from the site by rail.

Forty years later, the stands were suffering all the more seriously from the ravages of time and France Galop decided to build a ‘New Longchamp’. Dominique Perrault was chosen as the architect.

The demolition work started the day after the 2015 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and will continue until Autumn 2017, in time for a planned reopening the following spring.