Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier is a 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from in 1875 for the Paris Opera. The Paris Opera now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet. The opera was constructed in what Charles Garnier is said to have told the Empress Eugenie was “Napoleon III” style The Napoleon III style was highly eclectic, and borrowed from many historical sources; the opera house included elements from the Baroque, the classicism of Palladio, and Renaissance architecture blended together. The façade of the Opera used seventeen different kinds of material, arranged in very elaborate multicolored marble friezes, columns, and lavish statuary, many of which portray deities of Greek mythology.