A DESIGN THAT HIGHLIGHTS POWER

STRAIGHT STREET AND ROYAL MODEL

The Opéra is associated with Napoleon III as Versailles is with Louis XIV.

Pamela Spurdon

The imperious avenue de l'Opéra highlights the edifice as straight lines highlighted symbols of monarchy and as the avenue de Paris highlights Versailles: 

                                                                                             Snow on the Avenue de l'Opéra by Camille Pissaro, 1898 / zoom

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It was meant to connect the Opéra with the Tuileries and Louvre palaces, though the Tuileries burning has led to forgetting that tie:

  Web photo, no photographer named

It remained the site of official parades until  World War I:

As well, place de l'Opéra adapts the monarchs' template:

• It is a public space toward which straight streets converge.

• Homogeneous architecture surrounds it.

• The edifice itself replaces the statue of the king.

Claude Abron

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