The opera was constructed in what
Charles Garnier (1825–1898) is said to have told the
Empress Eugenie was "Napoleon III" style The
Napoleon III style was highly eclectic, and borrowed from many historical sources; the opera house included elements from the
Baroque, the classicism of
Palladio, and
Renaissance architecture blended together. These were combined with axial symmetry and modern techniques and materials, including the use of an iron framework, which had been pioneered in other Napoleon III buildings, including the
Bibliothèque Nationale and the markets of
Les Halles. File:Palais Garnier plan at ground floor - Mead 1991 p101.jpg|Plan of the ground floor File:Palais Garnier plan d'ensemble - Nuitter 1875 p196 - Google Books.jpg|Plan of the main floor File:Palais Garnier plan at the highest floor level - Steinhauser 1969 plate5.jpg|Plan at the auditorium ceiling level File:Palais Garnier plan of the roof - Mead 1991 p104.jpg|Plan of the roof The façade and the interior followed the Napoleon III style principle of leaving no space without decoration. The two gilded figural groups,
Charles Gumery's ''L'Harmonie
(Harmony) and La Poésie'' (Poetry), crown the apexes of the principal façade's left and right
avant-corps. They are both made of gilt copper electrotype. Below Gumery's ''L'Harmonie'', in the left (west)
pediment, is a sculpted
relief of two women sitting down representing Architecture and Industry by
Jean Claude Petit. The women surround an escutcheon with the words "ARCHITECTURE" and "INDUSTRIE" in gold. The woman who represents architecture holds a
compass and a plan of the Opéra Nouvel, at her feet is a winged genius holding a torch. The woman representing industry holds a lead pig and a hammer, while a winged genius stands at her feet, carrying a cup full of jewels. In the right (east) pediment a sculpture of two women sitting down representing Painting and Sculpture by
Théodore Gruyère. The women surround an escutcheon with the words "PEINTURE" (painting) and "SCULPTURE" in gold. The woman who represents painting holds a brush and a palette, at her feet is a putto holding a pencil. The woman representing sculpture holds a hammer and a chisel, at her feet is a putto sculpturing a bust with a mallet and a gouge.
Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume (
Instrumental Music),
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (
The Dance, criticised for indecency), and
Jean-Joseph Perraud (
Lyrical Drama). The façade also incorporates other work by Gumery,
Alexandre Falguière and others. Gilded
galvanoplastic bronze busts of many of the great composers are located between the columns of the theatre's front façade and depict, from left to right,
Rossini,
Auber,
Beethoven,
Mozart,
Spontini,
Meyerbeer, and
Halévy. On the left and right lateral returns of the front façade are busts of the librettists
Eugène Scribe and
Philippe Quinault, respectively. The attic storey façade is decorated with low and high reliefs with the letters "N" and "E", the imperial monogram (Napoléon Empereur). The low reliefs are by
Louis Villeminot, and the high reliefs are by
Jacques-Léonard Maillet. The high reliefs consist of four sets of ornamental figures. Each group has two winged women on either side of a
putto holding up a medallion bearing the letter ("E") and the imperial crown. One woman has a trumpet and a palm, the other, a torch and a palm. There were four repetitions of these themes. Two groups have a globe and a lyre on the ground, and the two other groups have two scrolls, a mask, and a laurel wreath. There are seven low reliefs with medallions surrounded by scrolls with two children on either side holding up a garland of flowers and fruits. Five are in the central part of the attic storey having the letter ("N") in the medallion and alternate the high reliefs, and the other two are on the east and west returns of the avant-corps. A frieze running along the top of the attic storey has fifty-three comic and tragic antique masks in gilt cast iron by . Image:Palais Garnier Statue.JPG|
Gumery's ''L'Harmonie'' (1869), atop the left
avant-corps of the façade, is 7.5 metres (25 ft) of gilt copper electrotype Image:PhotoB 062.jpg|
Apollo, Poetry and Music roof sculpture by
Aimé Millet Image:Apollon opera Garnier.jpg|''Apollo, Poetry and Music; Apollo's lyre'' detail Image:Right roof sculptures Paris Opera.jpg|
Poetry roof sculpture by
Charles Gumery Image:Harmony-Poetry-Music-statue-Garnier.jpg|
Harmony façade sculpture by
Francois Jouffroy (depicts Harmony-Poetry-Music) Image:Lyrical drama Perraud.jpg|
Lyrical Drama façade sculpture by
Jean-Joseph Perraud Image:Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux La Danse.jpg|
The Dance by
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Image:PhotoB 064.jpg|Bronze busts of Beethoven and Mozart on the front façade Image:Exterior-light-garnier.jpg|Light outside the building
Stage flytower The sculptural group
Apollo, Poetry, and Music, located at the apex of the south gable of the stage
flytower, is the work of
Aimé Millet, and the two smaller bronze
Pegasus figures at either end of the south gable are by
Eugène-Louis Lequesne.
Pavillon de l'Empereur Also known as the Rotonde de l'Empereur, this group of rooms is located on the left (west) side of the building and was designed to allow secure and direct access by the Emperor via a double ramp to the building. When the Empire fell, work stopped, leaving unfinished dressed stonework. It now houses the
Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris (Paris Opera Library-Museum) which is home to nearly 600,000 documents including 100,000 books, 1,680 periodicals, 10,000 programs, letters, 100,000 photographs, sketches of costumes and sets, posters and historical administrative records.
Pavillon des Abonnés Located on the right (east) side of the building as a counterpart to the Pavillon de l'Empereur, this pavilion was designed to allow subscribers (
abonnés) direct access from their carriages to the interior of the building. It is covered by a 13.5-metre (44-ft) diameter dome. Paired obelisks mark the entrances to the rotunda on the north and the south. File:Palais Garnier (Eastern Elevation), 2014-07-05.jpg|East façade and the Pavillon des Abonnés File:Façade Ouest de l'Opéra Garnier (2014).jpg|West façade and the Pavillon de l'Empereur
Interior The interior consists of interweaving corridors, stairwells, alcoves and landings, allowing the movement of large numbers of people and space for socialising during intermission. Rich with velvet, gold leaf, and cherubim and nymphs, the interior is characteristic of Baroque sumptuousness.
Grand staircase The building features a large ceremonial staircase of white marble with a balustrade of red and green marble, which divides into two divergent flights of stairs that lead to the Grand Foyer. Its design was inspired by
Victor Louis's grand staircase for the
Théâtre de Bordeaux. The pedestals of the staircase are decorated with female torchères, created by
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. The ceiling above the staircase was painted by
Isidore Pils to depict
The Triumph of Apollo,
The Enchantment of Music Deploying its Charms,
Minerva Fighting Brutality Watched by the Gods of Olympus, and
The City of Paris Receiving the Plan of the New Opéra. When the paintings were first fixed in place two months before the opening of the building, it was obvious to Garnier that they were too dark for the space. With the help of two of his students, Pils had to rework the canvases while they were in place overhead on the ceiling and, at the age of 61, he fell ill. His students had to finish the work, which was completed the day before the opening and the scaffolding was removed. File:GarnierOperaParis.jpg|
Louis Béroud: ''L'escalier de l'opéra Garnier'', 1877 (
Musée Carnavalet) File:Palais Garnier Grand Escalier d'Honneur - Garnier 1880 vol2 plate8.jpg|Engraving from Garnier's
Nouvel Opéra, 1880 File:Opera Garnier Grand Escalier.jpg|The grand staircase of the Palais Garnier File:Monumental stairway of the palais Garnier opera in Paris.jpg|The grand staircase File:Amphitheater-Entrance-Palais-Garnier.jpg|The Amphitheater Entrance. The two caryatids by Jules Thomas. Tragedy with her sword (left) and Comedy with her harp (right).
Cave of Pythia At the foot of the Grand staircase, Garnier wanted to place a white marble statue of
Orpheus, but there weren't enough funds for this. Then there were talks about moving the
La Danse (Carpeaux) from the main façade, but instead Garnier chose the
Pythia by
Adèle d'Affry (the artist also known by the pseudonym Marcello). There are two bronze lamps on each side of Pythia, made by Jules Corboz. The intrados of the staircase have plant motifs and musical instruments, masks and shells, the artist imagine it as a
Nymphaeum. According to the Greek mythology,
Pythia was the priestess of Apollo, the god of arts, and she delivered the oracles of the god. Marcello wanted her Pythia to look different from Pythias of other artists. She wrote: "will be an Indian Pythia, the one whose tongue
Alexander set wagging. A kind of gypsy." "A poor woman of a rather strange and bestial type, illuminated by the spirit." She would be like the fortune tellers of India "with tamed snakes curled around their forehand." (Greek inscription 1) "The figures painted by Curzon, were executed by Salviati, the ornaments by Facchina. The architecture is by Charles Garnier." encircled by leaf-work characteristic of each country and have the name of the countries in Greek (Egypt=ΑΙΓΥΠΤΟΣ, Greece=ΕΛΛΑΣ, Italy=ΙΤΑΛΙΑ and France=ΓΑΛΛΙΑ). File:Egypt-Palais-Garnier.jpg|Egypt medallion File:Greece-Palais-Garnier.jpg|Greece medallion File:Italy-Palais-Garnier.jpg|Italy medallion File:France-Palais-Garnier.jpg|France medallion
The Salons of the Sun and Moon At the east and west end of the Avant foyer there are the
Salon du Soleil (Salon of the Sun) and the
Salon de la Lune (Salon of the Moon). They were designed as the entrance vestibules for the smoking room and the Galerie du Glacier. Their themes were heat for the smoking room and cold for the Glacier, but because they completed in haste in order to be ready for the inauguration of 1875, in the rush there was a mistake and the themes were reversed.
Grand foyer This hall, high, long and wide, was designed to act as a drawing room for Paris society. It was restored in 2004. Its ceiling was painted by
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry and represents various moments in the history of music. The foyer opens onto an outside loggia and is flanked by two octagonal salons with ceilings painted by
Jules-Élie Delaunay in the eastern salon and
Félix-Joseph Barrias in the western salon. The octagonal salons open to the north into the Salon de la Lune at the western end of the Avant-Foyer and the Salon du Soleil at its eastern end. File:Opéra Garnier - le Grand Foyer.jpg|View of the Grand Foyer looking west File:Ceilings of the palais Garnier in Paris, 04.jpg|View of the Grand Foyer looking east File:Opera Garnier-DSC 2523w.jpg|Part of the ceiling of the Grand Foyer with paintings by
Paul Baudry: the central rectangular panel is
Music, while the oval panel at the western end is
Comedy. File:Ceilings of the palais Garnier in Paris, 03.jpg|Ceiling of the octagonal salon at the eastern end with
Jules-Élie Delaunay's central oval panel,
The Zodiac, and over-door panel,
Apollo Receiving the Lyre Chandelier The seven-ton bronze and crystal chandelier was designed by Garnier. Jules Corboz prepared the model, and it was cast and chased by Lacarière, Delatour & Cie. The total cost came to 30,000 gold
francs. The use of a central chandelier aroused controversy, and it was criticised for obstructing views of the stage by patrons in the fourth level boxes and views of the ceiling painted by Lenepveu. Garnier had anticipated these disadvantages but provided a lively defence in his 1871 book
Le Théâtre: "What else could fill the theatre with such joyous life? What else could offer the variety of forms that we have in the pattern of the flames, in these groups and tiers of points of light, these wild hues of gold flecked with bright spots, and these crystalline highlights?" File:Palais Garnier, Lenepveu ceiling model 1872 – Fontaine 2004 p. 83 (adjusted).jpg|Final model for the ceiling painted by
Jules-Eugène Lenepveu File:Palais Garnier auditorium chandelier - Nuitter 1875 p147.jpg|Auditorium chandelier On 20 May 1896, one of the chandelier's
counterweights broke free and burst through the ceiling into the auditorium, killing a concierge. This incident inspired one of the more famous scenes in
Gaston Leroux's classic 1910
gothic novel The Phantom of the Opera. in October 2015, Guillame Tison-Malthé became the new head chef. The restaurant, which has three different spaces and a large outside terrace, is accessible to the general public. Image:Terrasse Est Opéra Garnier - L'Opéra Restaurant.jpg|Palais Garnier east side with L'Opéra Restaurant Image:MezzanineOpera2.jpg|
L'Opéra Restaurant opened in 2011 ==History==