BORDEAUX - Grand Théâtre

Reference : FR073

AVAILABLE FOR TRADE
Size : 10 x 15 cm

"BORDEAUX (Gironde) - Le Grand Théâtre, Place de la Comédie"

Location of BORDEAUX in FRANCE

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area at a 2008 estimate. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture of the Gironde department.

The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1 010 000 and constitutes one of the largest urban areas of France. The city is among the world's major wine industry centres. Bordeaux wine has been produced in the region since the eighth century. The historic part of the city is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as "an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble" of the 18th century.

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Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux was first inaugurated on 17 April 1780. It was in this theatre that the ballet La Fille Mal Gardée premiered in 1789, and where a young Marius Petipa staged some of his first ballets.

The Theatre was designed by the architect Victor Louis (1731-1800), who was selected for the task by winning the famous Grand Prix de Rome. Louis was also famous for designing the galleries surrounding the gardens of the Palais Royal, and the Théâtre Français in Paris.

The Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux was conceived as a temple of the Arts and Light, with a neo-classical facade endowed with a portico of 12 Corinthian style colossal columns which support an entablature on which stand 12 statues that represent the nine muses and three goddesses (Juno, Venus, and Minerva).

In 1871 the theatre was briefly the National Assembly for the French Parliament.

The inside of the theatre was restored in 1991, and once again has its original colours of blue and gold. The Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux is one of the oldest wooden frame opera house in Europe not to have burnt or required rebuilding.

Today the theatre is home to the Opéra National de Bordeaux, as well as the Ballet National de Bordeaux.

UNESCO w.h.s. :
Bordeaux, Port of the Moon

Date of inscription : 2007

The Port of the Moon, port city of Bordeaux in south-west France, is inscribed as an inhabited historic city, an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble, created in the age of the Enlightenment, whose values continued up to the first half of the 20th century, with more protected buildings than any other French city except Paris. It is also recognized for its historic role as a place of exchange of cultural values over more than 2,000 years, particularly since the 12th century due to commercial links with Britain and the Low Lands. Urban plans and architectural ensembles of the early 18th century onwards place the city as an outstanding example of innovative classical and neoclassical trends and give it an exceptional urban and architectural unity and coherence. Its urban form represents the success of philosophers who wanted to make towns into melting pots of humanism, universality and culture.