Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2011
We review the observational knowledge that has built up over the past 25 years on the interstellar magnetic field within ~ 150 pc of the Galactic center. We also provide a critical discussion of the main observational findings and comment on their possible theoretical interpretations. To conclude, we propose a coherent view of the interstellar magnetic field near the Galactic center, which accounts at best for the vast body of observations.