The Cirque d'Hiver ("Winter Circus"), located at 110 rue Amelot (at the juncture of the rue des Filles du Calvaire and rue Amelot,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
11ème), has been a prominent venue for
circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...
es, exhibitions of
dressage
Dressage ( or ; , most commonly translated as "training") is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrianism, equestrian sport defined by th ...
, musical concerts, and other events, including exhibitions of
Turkish wrestling and even fashion shows. The theatre was designed by the architect
Jacques Ignace Hittorff and was opened by
Emperor Napoleon III on 11 December 1852 as the Cirque Napoléon. The orchestral concerts of
Jules Etienne Pasdeloup were inaugurated at the Cirque Napoléon on 27 October 1861 and continued for more than twenty years. The theatre was renamed Cirque d'Hiver in 1870.
The nearest métro station is
Filles du Calvaire.
History
The circus is an oval polygon of 20 sides, with
Corinthian columns at the angles, giving the impression of an oval building enclosing the oval ring, surrounded by steeply banked seating for spectators, very much like a miniature indoor
Colosseum. A low angled roof is self-supporting like a low
dome, so that there is no central pole, as under a tent, to obstruct views or interfere with the action.
The building was designed by the architect
Jacques Ignace Hittorff and opened as the Cirque Napoléon, a compliment to the new Emperor of the French
Napoleon III. The sculptor
James Pradier was called upon to provide exterior
bas-reliefs of
Amazons
The Amazons (Ancient Greek: ', singular '; in Latin ', ') were a people in Greek mythology, portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. ...
, and Francisque Duret and Astyanax-Scévola Bosio sculpted the panels of mounted warriors. The guiding entrepreneur was Louis Dejean, the proprietor of the Cirque d'Été ("Summer Circus") erected annually in the
bosquets that flanked the
Champs-Élysées. Dejean wagered that evening circus performances under the limelight, with the spectators well removed from the dust and smells of the tanbark floor, would provide a dress occasion for ''le tout-Paris'', and he was well rewarded for his acumen.
At the end of the
Second Empire, the Cirque d'Hiver was renamed the Cirque National, and was administered by Victor Franconi. It was given its present name in 1873.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec repeatedly found inspiration in rehearsals and performances at the Cirque d'Hiver;
Georges Seurat painted an afternoon performance, with a distinctly middle-class audience, in ''
The Circus'', one of the greatest unfinished canvases in the history of Western painting (1890–91,
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
). Franconi's son Charles assumed direction, 1897–1907. Since 1934 it has been the Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione, operated by the Bouglione brothers and their heirs. The original configuration accommodated 4,000, which has now been reduced to 2,090 due to fire codes.
The Cirque d'hiver was the site of the organization meeting of the
American Legion
The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is an Voluntary association, organization of United States, U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It comprises U.S. state, state, Territories of the United States, U.S. terr ...
from March 15 to 17, 1919. The American Legion was originally founded as an organization for American veterans of the First World War and has since expanded its membership to include veterans of subsequent conflicts. It is the largest veterans organization in the United States.
At the Cirque d'Hiver in August 1955,
Richard Avedon took his famous photograph of the fashion model "
Dovima with the Elephants" to show a floor-length evening dress by
Dior, one of the most iconic fashion photographs of the century. In 1995, Parisian designer
Thierry Mugler
Manfred Thierry Mugler (; 21 December 1948 – 23 January 2022) was a French fashion designer, creative director and creative adviser of Mugler. In the 1970s, Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house; and quickly rose to prominence in the fol ...
held a special fashion show at the circus, to celebrate his firm's 20th anniversary. Performers and special guests included
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
,
Tippi Hedren and many of the decade's top supermodels, including
Naomi Campbell. British designer
Katharine Hamnett also chose the venue for some of her typically exuberant catwalk presentations.
Cirque d'Hiver in fiction
* In 1956
Carol Reed directed the film ''
Trapeze''. It was in part filmed at the Cirque d'hiver.
*
Elizabeth Bishop wrote a poem titled "Cirque D'Hiver".
See also
*
List of works by James Pradier Horsed Amazon sculpture
*
Clown Bar, clown-themed bar two doors away, frequented by performers
Notes
Sources
* Simeone, Nigel (2000). ''Paris: A Musical Gazetteer''. New Haven: Yale University Press. .
External links
* http://www.cirquedhiver.com/
{{Authority control
Entertainment venues in Paris
Circuses in Paris
Buildings and structures in the 11th arrondissement of Paris
1852 establishments in France