La Grande Arche de la Défense, originally called La Grande Arche de la Fraternité, is a monument and building in the business district of La Défense and in the commune of Puteaux, to the west of Paris, France. It is usually known as the Arche de la Défense or simply as La Grande Arche. A 110-metre-high (360 ft) cube, La Grande Arche is part of the perspective from the Louvre to Arc de Triomphe, and was one of the Grands Projets of François Mitterrand. The distance from La Grande Arche to Arc de Triomphe is 4 km.
Grande Arche
Grande Arche at night
View of the Arc de Triomphe from the Grande Arche
Christmas decoration at the Grand Arche
La Défense is the major business district in France's Paris metropolitan area, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the city limits. It is located in Île-de-France region's department of Hauts-de-Seine in the communes of Courbevoie, La Garenne-Colombes, Nanterre, and Puteaux.
Clockwise from top: La Défense skyline at night; La Défense station; Esplanade with Grande Arche; La Défense de Paris
La Grande Arche de la Défense and the Yaacov Agam Fountain (1977). The bronze sculpture on the left, seen from the rear, is La Défense de Paris by Louis-Ernest Barrias, after which La Défense is named.
Paris, with the skyscrapers of La Défense in the background and the Eiffel Tower in the foreground taken in 2014
The Grande Arche is the central and defining building of La Défense. It is, with the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the third arch on the Historical Axis of Paris.
