Located in the heart of Paris, between the Place de la Republique and the place de la Bastille, the Cirque D'hiver is the worlds oldest circus which is still in activity. It first opened its doors in 1852. Cirque D'hiver was built for circus entrepreneur Louis Dejean as his circus companys winter home. He already managed the Cirque des Champs-Elysees, which he kept open from May to October. Up to 1846, his main establishment had been the Cirque Olmpique which was located five hundred yards from his new circus. This was on the portion of the Boulevard de Temple which disappeared in 1862 to give room to the present Place de la Republique.
Dejean sold his old Cirque Olympique in 1847, although it has been built only 20 years earlier in 1827. This had already lost its appeal and wasn't practical any more. Like any circus at this time, it had been designed with both a circus ring and a full theatre stage and was easy to convert into a regular theatre, which was known as Theatre du Cirque Olmpique. He had no permanent home during the winter and this forced Dejean to sending his troupe abroad such as London or Berlin. This was successful however having a winter base in Paris still made more sense. Dejean asked a well known architect called Jacques Ignace Hittorff to design plans for a new circus. Hittorff had already built the Cirque des Champs-Elysees as well as the Panorma. The circus Hittorff began to build in 1852, was spectacular in many ways. It was a 20 sides polygon, 42 metres in diameter with a cupola reaching 27.5 metres. However unlike other circus' at the time, there were no columns inside which gave a clearer watch for the viewer.
No comments:
Post a Comment