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

panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

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 Carl Ferdinand Langhans (14 January 1782 – 22 November 1869) was a Prussian architect whose specialty was designing theaters. Born in Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia, Langhans was the son of the architect Carl Gotthard Langhans. Langhans' de ...

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, circular bay with a narr ...

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 ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9 ...

erupting. Writer/artist

August Kopisch August Kopisch (26 May 1799 – 6 February 1853) was a German poet and painter. Biography Kopisch was born on 26 May 1799 in Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland). In 1815 he began studying painting at the Prague academy, but an injury t ...

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 full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

exhibit in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

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

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

. The Swiss writer Bernard Comment, among others, has pointed out the similarities between Langhans' pleorama and the ambitious

mareorama The Mareorama was an entertainment attraction at the Exposition Universelle (1900), 1900 Paris Exposition. It was created by Hugo d'Alesi :fr:Hugo d%27Alesi, (fr), a painter of advertising posters, and was a combination of moving panoramic paint ...

at the 1900

Paris Exhibition 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 ...

. A similar idea was used for a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

' in 1834. Spectators were seated in

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

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 opened on 15 September 1830 between the Lancashire towns of Liverpool and Manchester in England. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively ...

. In 1850s

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

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: Greece 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 ...

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

and

cyclorama A cyclorama is a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to give viewers standing in the middle of the cylinder a 360° view, and also a building designed to show a panoramic image. The intended effect is to make vie ...

, 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