The Old Bellecour Theater

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The Bellecour Theatre, a former Lyon theatre located at 85 rue de la République, was designed by Émile Guimet and architect Jules Chatron, opening its doors on September 25, 1879.

The first performance at the theatre was Alexandre Dumas's (fils) "The Youth of Louis XIV" at its inauguration in 1879. In 1882, an explosion in the theatre's restaurant, known as "L'Assommoir", involved anarchists, including Antoine Cyvoct.

In 1892, Émile Guimet gave the theatre and the museum to the city of Lyon. From 1895 to 1985, the building served as the headquarters of the newspaper Le Progrès before becoming a FNAC.

Admire this building which stands out with its rotunda, its frieze decorated with masks, and its caryatids supporting an elegant balcony.

Also note the ornamental detail of the façade. There is a dome on a drum, a female bust, caryatids (on the outside for the theatre, on the inside for the museum), smiling female faces, simply tied hair, a lyre (attached to the semicircular arch on the façade for the theatre, on a console in the large room on the first floor at the museum), scrolled cushions, bells, cords, ribbons, closed water flowers or palmettes.

During the Second World War, like the Impasse Catelin, the theatre was used by the French Militia, transforming the entrance hall into a permanent propaganda exhibition according to Marcel Ruby.

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Pierre Bossan

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