La Défense
dedicated business district outside of Paris
La Défense (French: [la defɑ̃s] ) is a major business district situated in the Greater Paris metropolitan area in Île-de-France, at the western end of the French capital’s historic axis. The district is home to the headquarters of numerous major French and foreign multinationals, as well as that of the Paris Bourse (Euronext) and European Banking Authority - which represents 3,500,000 square metres (38,000,000 sq ft) of office space.
Served by six high-capacity rail lines (RER A, RER E, Metro Line 1, Transilien lines L and U, and Tramway T2), numerous bus and coach routes, and soon by two new stations on Line 15 of the Grand Paris Express, and possibly by Line 18, which would connect it directly to Orly Airport and the Paris-Saclay research-intensive and business cluster, home to the HEC Paris and École Polytechnique campus, amongst other institutions, La Défense is one of the main transport hubs in the Paris region.
In 2025, La Défense was home to 2,800 companies, around 200,000 employees, 75,000 students and 50,000 residents, spread across 61 high-rise buildings. In 1981, the opening of Les Quatre Temps, still the most visited shopping centre in France (220 stores, 48 restaurants and a 24-screen movie theatre), established it as a major commercial hub in the Paris region. Plenitude Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe, was inaugurated in 2017. La Défense is also visited by 8,000,000 tourists each year and houses an open-air museum.
The district is located at the westernmost extremity of the 10-kilometre-long (6.2 mi) Axe historique ("historical axis") of Paris, which starts at the Louvre in Central Paris and continues along the Champs-Élysées, well beyond the Arc de Triomphe along the Avenue de la Grande Armée before culminating at La Défense. The district is centred in an orbital motorway straddling the Hauts-de-Seine department communes of Courbevoie, La Garenne-Colombes, Nanterre and Puteaux.
History
La Défense takes its name from the statue La Défense de Paris by Louis-Ernest Barrias, which was erected in 1883 to commemorate the soldiers who defended Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “La Défense” is dedicated business district outside of Paris. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Défense, dedicated and business, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “dedicated business district outside of Paris” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q987729. VIAF identifies the subject as 82145067103066630159. Authority coordinates are 48.892, 2.241. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025, 1981, 2017 and 1883.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “La Défense”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow La Défense primary sources, La Défense archive and Défense research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “La Défense”?
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- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “La Défense” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.