Palais Garnier

Emperor Napoleon III commissioned the opera house in 1861 and the young architect Charles Garnier built it between 1861 and 1875; it opened on 5 January 1875. Its style, known as the Napoleon III style, mixes Baroque, Palladian classicism and the Renaissance, built on a modern iron frame. The building inspired Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera and has been a historic monument since 1923.

The Grand Staircase of white marble, with balustrades of red and green marble, was designed as a stage for the audience itself. The Grand Foyer is 54 metres long and 18 metres high, covered in gilding, mirrors and painted ceilings. In the horseshoe-shaped auditorium, with 1,979 seats, a seven-tonne bronze and crystal chandelier hangs beneath the ceiling that Marc Chagall painted in 1964 with scenes from the operas of 14 composers. The building also houses the Library-Museum of the Paris Opera.

Since 1989 the Paris Opera has used the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet, while most operas moved to the Opéra Bastille. On Tiqets you can buy an entry ticket for a self-guided visit, or a guided tour combined with the Fragonard perfume museum and a perfume workshop. Temporary exhibitions in the building are listed on this page when they are on.

Rehearsals and performances can close the auditorium to visitors on some days, so the boxes and the Chagall ceiling are not always visible. The opera house is on the Place de l'Opéra, close to the department stores of Boulevard Haussmann.