The Cirque d'Hiver ("Winter Circus"), located at 110 rue Amelot (at the juncture of the rue des Filles Calvaires and rue Amelot,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

11ème), has been a prominent venue for

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

es, exhibitions of

dressage Dressage ( or ; a French term, most commonly translated to mean "training") is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrian sport defined by ...

, musical concerts, and other events, including exhibitions of

Turkish wrestling Wrestling ( Turkish: ''güreş'') is considered as an " ancestral sport" in Turkey, represented foremost by the annual Kırkpınar tournament in oil wrestling. Along with various highly esteemed styles of folk wrestling (known colloquially as '' ...

and even fashion shows. The theatre was designed by the architect

Jacques Ignace Hittorff Jacques Ignace Hittorff or, in German, Jakob Ignaz Hittorff (, ) ( Cologne, 20 August 1792 – 25 March 1867) was a German-born French architect who combined advanced structural use of new materials, notably cast iron, with conservative Bea ...

and was opened by

Emperor Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephe ...

on 11 December 1852 as the Cirque Napoléon. The orchestral concerts of

Jules Etienne Pasdeloup Jules Étienne Pasdeloup (15 September 1819 – 13 August 1887) was a French conductor. Life Pasdeloup was born in Paris. His father was an assistant conductor at the Opéra Comique; he was educated in music at the Conservatoire de Paris, leav ...

were inaugurated at the Cirque Napoléon on 27 October 1861 and continued for more than twenty years. The theatre was renamed Cirque d'Hiver in 1870. The nearest métro station is Filles du Calvaire.

History

The circus is an oval polygon of 20 sides, with

Corinthian columns The Corinthian order ( Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric ord ...

at the angles, giving the impression of an oval building enclosing the oval ring, surrounded by steeply banked seating for spectators, very much like a miniature indoor

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world ...

. A low angled roof is self-supporting like a low

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

, so that there is no central pole, as under a tent, to obstruct views or interfere with the action. The building was designed by the architect

and opened as the Cirque Napoléon, a compliment to the new Emperor of the French

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

. The sculptor

James Pradier James Pradier (born Jean-Jacques Pradier, ; 23 May 1790 – 4 June 1852) was a Genevan-born French sculptor best known for his work in the neoclassical style. Life and work Born in Geneva (then Republic of Geneva), Pradier was the son of a Prot ...

was called upon to provide exterior

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s of

Amazons In Greek mythology, the Amazons (Ancient Greek: Ἀμαζόνες ''Amazónes'', singular Ἀμαζών ''Amazōn'', via Latin ''Amāzon, -ŏnis'') are portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercule ...

, and Francisque Duret and Astyanax-Scévola Bosio sculpted the panels of mounted warriors. The guiding entrepreneur was Louis Dejean, the proprietor of the Cirque d'Été ("Summer Circus") erected annually in the

bosquet In the French formal garden, a ''bosquet'' (French, from Italian ''bosco'', "grove, wood") is a formal plantation of trees in a wide variety of forms, some open at the bottom and others not. At a minimum a bosquet can be five trees of identical s ...

s that flanked the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...

. Dejean wagered that evening circus performances under the limelight, with the spectators well removed from the dust and smells of the tanbark floor, would provide a dress occasion for ''le tout-Paris'', and he was well rewarded for his acumen. At the end of the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

, the Cirque d'Hiver was renamed the Cirque National, and was administered by Victor Franconi. It was given its present name in 1873.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in th ...

repeatedly found inspiration in rehearsals and performances at the Cirque d'Hiver;

Georges Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...

painted an afternoon performance, with a distinctly middle-class audience, in '' The Circus'', one of the greatest unfinished canvases in the history of Western painting (1890–91,

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French a ...

). Franconi's son Charles assumed direction, 1897–1907. Since 1934 it has been the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione, operated by the Bouglione brothers and their heirs. The original configuration accommodated 4,000, which has now been reduced to 2,090 due to fire codes. The Cirque d'hiver was the site of the organization meeting of the

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is made up of state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments, and these are in turn made up of ...

from March 15 to 17, 1919. The American Legion was originally founded as an organization for American veterans of the First World War and has since expanded its membership to include veterans of subsequent conflicts. It is the largest veterans organization in the United States. At the Cirque d'Hiver in August 1955,

Richard Avedon Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', ''Vogue'' and ''Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and danc ...

took his famous photograph of the fashion model " Dovima with the Elephants" to show a floor-length evening dress by

Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds 42.36% shar ...

, one of the most iconic fashion photographs of the century. In 1995, Parisian designer

Thierry Mugler Manfred Thierry Mugler (; 21 December 1948 – 23 January 2022) was a French fashion designer, creative director and creative adviser of Mugler. In the 1970s, Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house; and quickly rose to prominence in the fo ...

held a special fashion show at the circus, to celebrate his firm's 20th anniversary. Performers and special guests included

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

Tippi Hedren Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of ''Life'' and '' Glamour'' magazines, among others, Hed ...

and many of the decade's top supermodels, including

Naomi Campbell Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...

Cirque d'Hiver in fiction

* In 1956

Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and ''Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the ...

directed the film ''

Trapeze A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a ceiling support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, spinning (rigged from a single point), swinging or flying, an ...

''. It was in part filmed at the Cirque d'hiver. *

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...

wrote a poem titled "Cirque D'Hiver".

Notes

Sources

* Simeone, Nigel (2000). ''Paris: A Musical Gazetteer''. New Haven: Yale University Press. .

External links

* http://www.cirquedhiver.com/ {{Authority control Entertainment venues in Paris Circuses in Paris Buildings and structures in the 11th arrondissement of Paris 1852 establishments in France

History

Cirque d'Hiver in fiction

See also

Notes

Sources

External links