Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier is the historic opera house of the Paris Opera, on Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement, designed by Charles Garnier and opened in 1875. Today it stages mainly ballet and some opera, and its public spaces are open for daytime visits. It suits architecture lovers, ballet fans and first-time visitors to Paris.

From Charles Garnier's design to the Phantom

Work began in August 1861 to designs by Charles Garnier (1825 to 1898), and the opera house opened with a gala performance on 5 January 1875. It became a landmark of Second Empire Paris and inspired Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera. On 20 May 1896 a counterweight of the chandelier fell into the auditorium and killed a concierge, an event that found its way into the novel. The building marked its 150th anniversary in 2025, and an exceptional scale model made for the occasion is on show.

Grand staircase, Grand Foyer and Salon du Glacier

The grand staircase of white marble, with a balustrade of red and green marble, divides into two flights leading to the gilded Grand Foyer. The route also takes in the Salon du Glacier, the subscribers' rotunda and the Grand Vestibule with statues of composers such as Rameau.

The auditorium seats 1,979. Its ceiling, painted by Marc Chagall in 1964 on a removable frame over the original, shows scenes from works by 14 composers, and the bronze and crystal chandelier weighs about seven tons. Rehearsals can close the auditorium without warning. The Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra, run by the national library, holds nearly 600,000 documents and is part of self-guided visits. Exhibitions in late 2026 include costume decoration at the Paris Opera (until 28 February 2027) and Richard Wagner, The Ring revolutions (27 October 2026 to 20 February 2027).