The best-known pleorama was a 19th-century moving

panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

entertainment where the viewers sat in a rocking boat while panoramic views on painted canvas rolled past. The word has sometimes been used for other entertainments or innovations. Architect Carl Ferdinand Langhans introduced a pleorama in Breslau in 1831 with scenes of the

Bay of Naples A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

on both sides of 24 "voyagers" sitting in a wooden boat floating in a pool of water. The illusion was enhanced by light and sound effects: the boatman singing,

Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius ( ) is a Somma volcano, somma–stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuv ...

erupting. Writer/artist August Kopisch was involved in designing the hour-long show. Carl Wilhelm Gropius, who had a

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...

exhibit in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, took over management of this pleorama in 1832, and there was also a pleorama of a journey along the river

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. The Swiss writer Bernard Comment, among others, has pointed out the similarities between Langhans' pleorama and the ambitious mareorama at the 1900 Paris Exhibition. A similar idea was used for a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

' in 1834. Spectators were seated in

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

carriages to watch a moving panorama of scenes visible from the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway The Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the first inter-city railway in the world. It Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It ...

. In 1850s

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

the name ''pleorama'' was given to shows which presented historic scenes and panoramic views using glass, but posters for these do not mention anything resembling Langhans' boat concept.Posters in Swedish for pleoramas
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Etymology

The name ''pleorama'' was coined from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

elements. Like other 19th century novelties ending in ''-orama'' -

and cyclorama, for instance - the second half of the word has the sense of 'something seen'. The ''pleo-'' part here is understood to come from a Greek word meaning 'float' which applies to Langhans' boat in water idea. ''Pleorama'' is also the 21st century name of an innovative "floating house".

References

*{{cite book, isbn=1861891237, first=Bernard, last=Comment, title=The Panorama, year=2004, publisher=Reaktion Books, pages=272
Stefan Simon, ''"Fern-Sehen" und "Fern-Hören"''
(''in German'')

*''Oxford English Dictionary''
Etymology website page on ''Pleo-''

Etymology

See also

References

Further reading