Stade Roland-Garros, the tennis stadium at Porte d’Auteuil since 1928

The Stade Roland-Garros, at Porte d’Auteuil on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, was built in timber over the winter of 1927 to 1928 on land belonging to the Stade Français. It was to host the 1928 Davis Cup final, brought back to France by the Four Musketeers. It then had five courts and a 10,000-seat centre court.

Émile Lesieur insisted on naming it after his friend the aviator Roland Garros, killed in aerial combat in 1918. The French Championships have been played here since 1928. During the war the stadium served as a transit camp, where Arthur Koestler was held. In 1989 statues of Lacoste, Borotra, Cochet and Brugnon were placed on the Place des Mousquetaires.

The stadium grew in stages: the Suzanne-Lenglen court in 1994, the centre court named Philippe-Chatrier in 2001, the Simonne-Mathieu court in the Serres d’Auteuil garden in 2019, and a retractable roof over the Chatrier for 2020.

In the 16th arrondissement, its eighteen clay courts host the French Open every spring. All year round, guided tours take visitors behind the scenes and through the history of the tournament.