The European Synchrotron Facility (ESRF) is a multinational synchrotron light facility installed in Grenoble (France). The final approval for the facility was given in 1988 and the machine entered the production phase of X-rays for research in January 1993. More than 800 magnets were manufactured, controlled and installed during the construction phase. After a short presentation of the ESRF, this paper intends to describe the main features of these magnets, the philosophy adopted for their control and finally the results which were obtained.