The Eiffel Tower’s Illuminations

When are the Tower’s lights turned on?

Every evening, the Eiffel Tower adorns itself in gold and sparkles the first five minutes of every hour, while the beacon shines across Paris.

• The Tower’s golden lighting and beacon turn on when night falls.
• The sparkles are lit up for five minutes at the start of each hour starting from nightfall, until the monument closes.

Whether you’re visiting the Tower or walking nearby the monument at night, it’s an unmissable experience, typically Parisian and oh so magical! The Eiffel Tower’s lights at night are made up of three components: the golden lighting, the sparkles and the beacon. To find out when the Tower will light up in the evening, first you need to know what time the sun will set. The spotlights in the golden lighting system are turned on at nightfall, using sensors. This takes under ten minutes.

The Eiffel Tower’s beacon lights up and starts to rotate at the same time as the golden lighting. 
Then, the sparkles are lit up on top of the golden lighting, for five minutes at the start of every hour once the monument’s lighting is turned on. For example, if night falls at 8.35 pm, the lights will turn on during the ten minutes that follow and the first sparkles will take place at 9.00 pm.

Admire a video of the Eiffel Tower lit up and sparkling

When are the Eiffel Tower’s lights turned off?

As part of the City of Paris emergency energy saving plan launched in September 2022, the Eiffel Tower lights will now be switched off completely from 11.45pm (lights and beacon): the final sparkles will therefore take place at 11.00 pm. The exception is during the summer months, when the Eiffel Tower closes its doors at 12.45 am: this means there are sparkles at midnight and a final set at 1.00 am. Though the Tower’s golden lighting and beacon are turned off, the monument continues to sparkle for a few minutes. Don’t miss out on this exceptional show! 

Where can you see the best views of the Tower lit up?

Our number-one advice is to visit the Eiffel Tower in the evening. You will enjoy an exceptional experience in a unique atmosphere, bathed in the monument’s golden lighting, particularly in the stairs. To make the most of the sparkles, head to the second floor and look up, admiring the sparkling spire of the monument. A magical atmosphere captivates the entire Tower. You’ll lose yourself in the collective excitement created by the lights! And if the beacon intrigues you, head to the top to discover how it works, once again by simply looking up.

If you’re not at the Tower, the advantage is that you can see the Tower lit up from many places in Paris and the Paris region! Trocadéro esplanade and Champ de Mars remain unbeatable spots to watch the show of the Eiffel Tower lights turning on at night.

How does the Eiffel Tower’s golden lighting work?

The lighting system was inaugurated on December 31, 1985 and designed by lighting engineer Pierre Bideau. It features 336 spotlights, fitted with yellow-orange high-pressure sodium bulbs.

These lights were met with unanimous international success and launched a new wave of initiatives to showcase monuments at night-time, in Paris and major cities in France and around the world.
The beams of light, aimed from bottom to top, illuminate the Eiffel Tower from inside its structure. Replacing the 1,290 spotlights in service since 1958, which previously lit up the Tower from the exterior, they highlight the monument’s delicate metal structure and light up various parts of the Tower for visitors coming at night, until the monument closes to the public. Beyond their aesthetic impact, these lights are also necessary for the Tower to operate safely.

How do the Eiffel Tower’s beacon and sparkles work?

At midnight on December 31, 1999, the entire world discovered the Tower’s beacon and sparkles. 

The beacon, two beams of light with 50-mile range, is made up of four motorized marine-style floodlights. They are computer-piloted, using specific software and a programmable robotic system that controls their movements. Performing a 90° rotation, they are synchronized to form a cross-shaped double beam pivoting 360°. They have 6000W xenon bulbs, chosen for their lifespan of approximately 1,200 hours. The lighting heads are over-ventilated to avoid any risk of overheating, and a heating system is activated when the temperature drops below 32°F while the lights are off. The beacon evokes Gustav Eiffel’s beacon, representing a symbolic and universal guide.

As for the sparkles, which were also created by Pierre Bideau, 20,000 low-power 6W bulbs were installed on the four sides of the Tower, which turn on randomly in short bursts. The sparkles are lit up for five minutes exactly at the beginning of each hour, starting from nightfall, until the monument closes.

Special moments in the Tower’s lighting history

Throughout the course of its existence, the Eiffel Tower has been host to lighting effects of a festive nature. Through continual renewal of its sources of artificial illumination, the Tower has benefited from the latest innovations in lighting equipment from the very beginning – from gas to electricity, incandescent lamps to neon, passing from sodium to high-pressure, and most recently LEDs.

Generally speaking, the Tower’s usual lighting systems were not designed for special lights (colors, flags, messages), so such installations require external means of lighting used for each occasion.

The monument has been illuminated since its opening in 1889, during the World Exhibition, when 10,000 gaslights lined the trusses and platforms. Two floodlights at the top lit up the monuments of Paris. The red-white-blue beacon at the top was the most powerful in the world. Around 1900, the lights switched to electric, and 5,000 lightbulbs outlined the Tower’s decorative arches and edges.

A giant, 20-foot clock installed on the second floor showed the time in luminous digits, from 1907 on. From 1925 to 1936, André Citroën funded the installation of a luminous wonderland, with 250,000 colored lightbulbs. It was a particularly effective illuminated advertising campaign: the name Citroën written on three sides could be seen from 25 miles away in all directions.

Between 1933 and 1934, a 50-foot diameter clock returned, telling the time using hands formed by beams of light. It was added to the Citroën lights, placed in the “E” of Citroën.

For the 1937 Exposition des Arts et Techniques, a huge light made from 6 miles of fluorescent tubes was installed underneath the first floor. Thirty marine floodlights covered the Tower in white light.

In the 1950s, a new long-term lighting installation

In 1958, a new long-term lighting installation was added to the Tower: 1,290 spotlights were installed in multiple channels on Champ-de-Mars to light up the Tower from the outside. These lights would remain until December 31, 1985, when the golden lighting in the structure was installed, created by Pierre Bideau. It is still used to this day.

For Christmas 1978,  the Tower was decorated with a Christmas tree lit up with 30,000 bulbs. As the year 2000 approached, the Eiffel Tower became the universal support for the countdown. On April 5, 1997, a giant countdown “J – 1000 avant l’an 2000” (1000 days until the year 2000) appeared on the second floor, facing Trocadéro. 

And January 1 was the occasion for the “Top de l’an 2000 “ and the unforgettable fireworks show, marking the start of the year 2000. The Tower revealed its 20,000 sparkling lights and new beacon at the top. The sparkles, initially planned to be temporary, were taken down on July 14, 2001. On June 21, 2003, the sparkles returned to the Eiffel Tower, for the first ten minutes of every hour from nightfall until 1 am.

Special lighting from the 2000s

In the 2000s, special lighting for different events, tributes and light shows significantly increased. The Tower was decorated in many colors and designs for different occasions. These installations involve external equipment specifically installed for each occasion.

• January, 24th-29th 2004: Celebration of Chinese New Year: the Eiffel Tower is dressed in red! For the Chinese New Year celebrations, a clever set of exterior projectors bathed Paris’ most famous monument in scarlet light. This began on Saturday 24th January at the end of a parade organised on the Champs-Elysées, during an illumination event in front of the French and Chinese Ministers for Culture and the Mayors of Paris and Peking. The display was left in place until the morning of the 29th January (5 days) and could be seen every evening from 5 pm to 7.30 am! This red lighting effect on the Eiffel Tower was produced in collaboration with EDF.
• May, 9th 2006: The Tower Turns Blue for the 20th Anniversary of Europe Day
• From September, 7th to October, 20th 2007: Rugby is Honoured, for the occasion of the World Rugby Cup hosted by France, the Eiffel Tower adopted the colours of rugby. From the bottom to the second floor, the Tower was bathed in green light, to represent the pitch, with two vertical beams of light and a cross-bar for the goal. A giant ball with a span of 13 metres was suspended from the second floor, approximately 80 metres from the ground.
• From June, 30th to December, 31st 2008: The Eiffel Tower in European colours. 
  To celebrate France’s Presidency of the European Union (1st July – 31st December 2008), the Eiffel Tower, in cooperation with the Mayor of Paris, paid homage to Europe. Every evening at nightfall, the Tower was decked out in blue light, decorated with 12 yellow stars to represent the European flag. The sparkling lights continued to glitter for the first 5 minutes of every hour.
• From October, 22nd to December, 31st 2009: The Tower celebrates its 120th birthday by offering a light show every evening.

• May 28 to June 2, 2013, and June 15-16, 2013: The Tower was illuminated with the colors of South Africa for Nelson Mandela International Day.
• September 30, 2015: Every evening of Paris Fashion Week 2015, the Eiffel Tower graced the capital with a light show on the theme “fashion loves Paris.”
• Every October: Each year, the Eiffel Tower is lit up in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, also known as Pink October, to support breast cancer research and those battling the disease.
• June 13, 2016: The Eiffel Tower paid homage to the victims of the homophobic shooting in Orlando by gracing its structure with a rainbow flag.
• June-July 2016: The Tower celebrated the 2016 European Football Championship that was held in France. For each match, it was lit up in the colors of the country that received the most support on social media.
• July 19, 2016: The Eiffel Tower showed its support for France and paid tribute to the victims of the Nice terrorist attacks by donning the colors of the French flag: blue, white, and red.
• November 4, 2016: The Eiffel Tower was illuminated in green to celebrate the definitive implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.
• February 3, 2017: The Tower was adorned in the colors of the Olympic Games to celebrate Paris’ successful bid to host them, along with the inscription “Paris 2024.”
• September 28, 2017: To celebrate the milestone of 300 million visitors to the Tower since its construction, we put on a light show entitled “Thanks 300 million”.
• December 8, 2017: Three days after Johnny Hallyday’s death, the Eiffel Tower paid homage to the singer by displaying “Thanks Johnny” on a silver illumination.
• May 15-17, 2019: To celebrate the Eiffel Tower’s 130th anniversary, an unprecedented light show was designed by Bruno Seillier and its exceptional visuals effects displayed at dusk.

Watch the 130th anniversary lightshow

• May 2, 2020: special sparkles in tribute to all the people involved in the fight against COVID-19.
• November 2021: for the occasion of 75 years of UNESCO, special sparkles on November 12, accompanied by a projection of the international organization’s logo.  On November 20, as part of World Children’s Day, the Tower is lit up in the UNICEF colors.  Lastly, on November 30, special sparkles for Josephine Baker’s induction into the Pantheon.
• January 2022: for the second time in its history, the Iron Lady is lit up in blue and the stars of the European flag to celebrate the French Presidency of the European Union.