Amphithéâtre Anglais

The Cirque Olympique was a circus institution in the 19th century in Paris. He was guided by a originating from Venice equestrian family called Franconi. The Cirque Olympique was successively housed in three buildings.

First building on

Antoine Franconi had built along with Philip Astley, the London- "inventor" of the circus, the Amphitheatre Anglais in Paris since 1782. The consequences of the French Revolution forced Astley, the company in 1793 to sell to Franconi. Franconi's sons Laurent and Henri were able to escape the prohibition of their circus activities in the wake of the Napoleonic theater Decree of 1807 by successfully argued that the circus was not a theater. With the birth of the Cirque Olympique, the circus was separated from the theater. Nevertheless, theater-like performances remained for a long time part of the circus programs.

The first building was on the rue Saint- Honoré in the garden of the Capuchin monastery and was used from 1807 to 1816. Here the Franconi brothers produced a conventional circus program with the emphasis on dressage horses, but also, as was customary in the circus, spectacle plays and pantomimes. In it, an elephant named Baba became famous from 1807 onwards. A white deer named Coco was leading actor of dramas like Acteon changé de Cerf (1811 ) by Jean Baptiste Augustin Hapdé or Le pont infernal (1812 ) by Henri Franconi. The highlight of these pieces was a hunt with dogs by painted backdrops that put the deer trained to the test.

Second building

The second room was in the years 1817-1826 in the rue du Faubourg du Temple in the former amphitheater of Philip Astley. 1825 here the horse drama Mazeppa was listed by Lord Byron, which was copied throughout Europe. The wooden building was destroyed on March 16, 1826 by a fire on the occasion of the pyrotechnic spectacle L' Incendie des Salins. ( " The fire of Salins- les- Bains in 1825 " - replicate it was common for current disasters in the theater. )

Third building

The third, stone-built building was opened on the Boulevard du Temple in 1827 and was there until the demolition of the theater district, 1862. Cirque Olympique stood as north westernmost building in a series with the Théâtre des Folies- Dramatiques, the Théâtre de la Gaîté and the Théâtre the Funambules, the so-called Parisian boulevard theaters. The theater was in the shape of a parallelogram. The roof was made ​​of cast iron, the stage has already been isolated by the Iron Curtain from the auditorium. Instead of a parquet there was a riding school for Equestrian Games. There were three rows of boxes and four galleries. 1841 summed up the hall 1800 people.

This battle paintings were listed as horses Theatre, Napoleon Bonaparte nor glorified after the July Revolution of 1830, without, however, you could call him. The second pillar of the theater were great Feerien. The pantomime Les lions de Mysore in 1831 marked the beginning of the prey animal training in the circus, what the brothers Franconi the trainer Henri Martin committed. Even the phenomenal clown and acrobat Jean -Baptiste Auriol worked here.

1835 referred Laurent Franconi the equestrian François Baucher in the Directorate with a. The house was sold because of economic problems in 1847. After the February Revolution of 1848 opened the composer Adolphe Adam as an opera house, but could not fill it with the crowd.

Laurent and Henri Franconi both died in 1849 as victims of a cholera epidemic.

Cirque d' été

During the summer time, the performances took place since 1835 in a lighter, round circus wooden building on the Avenue des Champs- Élysées, which was also called Cirque Olympique. It was led by Henri's son Adolphe Franconi together with Louis Dejean. In 1841 it was replaced after plans by Jakob Ignaz Hittorff by a stone building called the Cirque d' été. 1844-45 Hector Berlioz conducted here due to the good acoustics a series of major orchestral concerts.

As a replacement for the winter venue on the Boulevard du Temple in 1852 the Cirque d' hiver was built.