The Villars class of unprotected cruisers was a group of four ships built for the French Navy in the mid-1870s and early 1880s. The class comprised Villars, Forfait, Magon, and Roland. They were designed as part of a naval construction program aimed at modernizing the French fleet in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, and were intended to serve overseas in the French colonial empire. As such, they were fitted with a full-ship rig to allow them to cruise for extended periods of time without burning coal for their steam engine, and they carried a relatively heavy armament of fifteen 138.6 mm (5.46 in) guns.

Villars was the lead ship of the Villars class of unprotected cruisers built for the French Navy in the 1870s. The ships were designed for service in the French colonial empire, and they carried a relatively heavy battery of fifteen 138.6 mm (5.46 in) guns, and could steam at a speed of 14.5 knots. Villars was laid down in 1875 and was completed in 1881. She saw significant service in East Asia in the early to mid-1880s during France's campaign to secure a colony in Tonkin and the Sino-French War that began as a direct result of France's interference in what Qing China viewed as a traditional subordinate country. During the latter conflict, she saw action at the Battle of Fuzhou, where she assisted in the destruction of three Chinese cruisers, and later participated in the blockade of Formosa. The rest of the ship's career passed relatively uneventfully, and in 1896, she was struck from the naval register and thereafter sold for scrap.