Trapeze and Artists: Restoring the World’s Oldest Circus to its Original Glory in Paris | circus

For more than 170 years, Cirque d’Hiver, the oldest circus in the world, has been the scene of many amazing acts.

In 1859, gymnast Jules Lyotard — whose name became synonymous with the one-piece — captivated audiences by launching himself from one swinging trapeze to another without a safety net for the first time in public.

Half a century later, when circus artist Rosa van Bean married animal trainer Joseph Pollione, the pond was set up inside the circus’ lion cage; In 1955, the film Trapeze starring Gina Lollobrigida, Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster was filmed inside the imposing 20-sided building in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.

However, today’s wow factor came not from the daring stunts or smoke and mirrors of the ring, but from the revelation of an extraordinary panorama of painted canvases that had been hidden for more than 70 years.

Following the discovery, Circus Dever, whose name means winter circus, will undergo a complete restoration, returning it to its original 19th-century glory.

“It’s great to see them and an important part of our history,” said Louis Sampione Pollione, whose family has owned the circus since 1934. “We knew they were there before because my father remembers seeing them, and we always hoped we could rediscover them one day. But we were afraid of the state they would be in or even if they were still there.”

As an associate director and historian of the circus, Pollioni has spent decades delving into the archives, and admits that he would often lie awake at night wondering what the building must have looked like when Napoleon III officially opened it on December 11, 1852.

“We’ve only seen two [panels] “So far, but we’ll open everything up to see what’s out there. What’s really interesting and important is that it’s one of the few circus heritages from that era in painting,” he said.

After Cirque Dever, a heritage-listed building, underwent a €2.2 million exterior facelift in 2007, the initial plan was to replace the tiers of red seating around the arena. Architect Stephane Millet, who is also renovating the stage at the Opéra Garnier, proposed a more ambitious project.

“One of my tasks is to raise awareness of the importance of heritage and seek government assistance for projects, so I convinced the family to go a little further than their initial ambitions,” Millett said.

“What started with benches has become a global, all-encompassing project; a renovation from the bottom up. When you have heritage like this, you have to showcase it.”

Millet has enlisted the help of the Ministry of Culture and other authorities to finance much of the project, which he says will cost “several million euros.”

The Cirque d’Hiver, initially called the Cirque Napoléon, was built in just eight months under the supervision of architect Jacques Hittorff, responsible for the Gare du Nord station. The original polygonal structure was 42 meters in diameter, had 40 stained-glass windows and a wooden roof covered with a decorative fabric designed to look like a tent, complete with mock columns and handcrafted gilded moldings resembling ropes and ties.

The 20 original paintings, approximately 6 meters wide and 2 meters high, mounted on wooden frames, represent warriors on horseback and scenes dedicated to equestrian arts. They were created by Nicolas Gosse and Félix Joseph Barias, two highly sought-after painters in their day, and reflect the relief paintings outside the building, which was renovated in 2007.

The first performers were former cavalry officers but the acts soon diversified. Lyotard later inspired the famous English song, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze Who Flew ‘Through the Air with Perfect Ease’, written three years before his death in 1870 at the age of 32. Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, was said to have been inspired by the beauty of the interior and wrote that spectacles were so popular that popular crowds had to be turned away.

Today, the shows no longer use wild animals in performances – they were discontinued in 2017 – and they remain very popular among Parisians. The building is considered one of the city’s landmarks.

The renovation, which is expected to take four years, is scheduled to begin in July when the panels are completed They are removed for restoration. It was covered with blue-painted wood panels in the 1950s after being diluted by smoke from the original oil lamps, and is believed to have suffered further damage from leaking windows and several successive layers of trim.

“It’s like wallpaper on old houses,” Millett said. “Until we remove everything, we won’t know exactly what’s there and how much damage has been done.” “The painting is very fragile, but from what we have seen, it is a remarkable work. That the panels have survived at all is a testament to the quality of the painting.”

For Buglione, the circus is very much a family affair. When Rosa Pollioni died in 2018, at the age of 107, she left 55 descendants, including her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. There have been many additions since then. Of the 20 family members still involved in Cirque d’Ever, Louis Sampion’s father, Emilien, is the eldest at 91, while the younger of the two is three years old.

“It’s family and everyone is involved in one way or another, even in small things,” Pollione said. “It’s business and we’ve found a way to make sure they both succeed.”

In recent years, outside of the spectacular Winter Circus, which features an orchestra of nine musicians, the building has been used for special events and political rallies.

The next few years will be hard work ensuring that the circus continues to perform every winter while making renovations during the two-month summer break, but Buglioni is confident they can keep all the balls in the air.

“We will operate during what we call the dead season,” he said. “It will take longer but we cannot close it. It is a business, so it must succeed. Moreover, people are passionate about the circus. They come when they are children, then they come with their children and grandchildren. It is a tradition.”