The square includes a large bronze sculpture by Aimé-Jules Dalou, the Triumph of the Republic, depicting the personification of France, Marianne, and is encircled by shops and a flower garden.

The space that is now the Place de la Nation first emerged on 26 August 1660, on the occasion of the ceremonial entrance of Louis XIV and his new wife Maria Theresa, following their wedding in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on 9 June 1660.

[1]: 138–139 The triumphal arch project holds a special place in France's cultural history, as it was the starting point of a public controversy known as the Quarrel of Inscriptions (French: querelle des inscriptions), itself a significant episode of the broader Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns that reached its climax a decade later with the production by Charles Perrault, Claude's brother, of his essay on the era of Louis XIV (French: Le Siècle de Louis le Grand).

Originally, the square accommodated two pavilions and two columns of the barrière du Trône designed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux and built for the barrier of octroi (for tax collection) which surrounded the entrance to the cours de Vincennes.

[4] On 22 June 1963, the magazine Salut les copains organised a concert at the Place de la Nation, featuring singers such as Johnny Hallyday, Richard Anthony, Eddy Mitchell and Frank Alamo.