Passage des Panoramas: Where Paris First Saw Gaslight
Why is it significant?
Duck in from the Boulevard Montmartre and let your eyes adjust. A long, slightly crooked corridor, side alleys branching off, old shop signs, windows full of stamps and postcards and engraved visiting cards. It feels like the inside of a cabinet of curiosities.
Key Facts
| Place | Passage des Panoramas: Where Paris First Saw Gaslight |
|---|---|
| Address | 11 Boulevard Montmartre, 75002 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.87100, 2.34170 |
| Part of Walk | Glass Roofs and Royal Secrets: From the Louvre to the Covered Passages of Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Duck in from the Boulevard Montmartre and let your eyes adjust. A long, slightly crooked corridor, side alleys branching off, old shop signs, windows full of stamps and postcards and engraved visiting cards. It feels like the inside of a cabinet of curiosities.
The Passage des Panoramas opened in 1799, which makes it the oldest of the covered passages still standing in Paris. It took its name from two tall rotundas that stood at its entrance on the boulevard. Inside them, visitors climbed to a central platform and found themselves surrounded by a single painting that wrapped all the way around: a view of Paris, of a famous battle, of a distant city.
And here is the surprise. The man who brought the panorama craze to Paris was an American, Robert Fulton, the same Robert Fulton who later built the first commercially successful steamboat. In the 1790s he was in Paris trying to sell his inventions, including a submarine, to the French government. Short of money, he took out the French patent for the panorama, and Parisians paid to stand inside a picture.
Then came light. Around 1817 the Passage des Panoramas was one of the very first places in Paris to be lit by gas, a novelty that drew crowds just to see it. Zola sent his heroine Nana strolling through these shop windows, and the stage door of the Théâtre des Variétés still opens onto the passage, so actors could slip out between acts. On a first night, the corridor would fill with top hats and perfume, and the shopkeepers stayed open late to catch the audience on its way out.
The rotundas were demolished in the 1830s, but the name stayed. Look out for the old engraver's shop, whose carved wooden front has been carefully preserved. Now cross the Boulevard Montmartre: straight ahead, on the other side, the passages continue.