General de Gaulle Square (Place du Général-de-Gaulle)

During the German occupation (1940-1944), the square bore the name 'Place du Maréchal-Pétain' after the Vichy regime leader. The municipal council voted to rename it after de Gaulle on July 12, 1944, just two weeks after Cherbourg's liberation on June 26 - making it one of the earliest public spaces in France to honor the Free French leader.

On August 20, 1944, de Gaulle's plane from Algiers nearly ran out of fuel after emerging from thick fog, making a dramatic landing at Cherbourg. This visit established the symbolic ritual he would repeat across liberated France: a procession from the Prefecture to City Hall, followed by an emotional speech from the balcony while crowds sang La Marseillaise. This pattern would culminate in his famous Champs-Élysées procession in Paris six days later.

The Mouchel Fountain at the center of the square features an unusual sculptural composition. At the top stand the Three Graces, copied from Renaissance sculptor Germain Pilon's famous work, while four allegorical figures representing the seasons are accompanied by dolphins, fish, and faun heads around the octagonal basin. The exterior is built from granite quarried at Diélette, a nearby coastal village.