Théâtre de la Ville

The Théâtre de la Ville stands on the Place du Châtelet as a centerpiece of the monumental urban planning envisioned by Baron Haussmann in the mid-nineteenth century. Its architecture, designed by Gabriel Davioud, was part of a grand strategy to replace old, cramped city quarters with wide avenues and grand public buildings that would project the power of the Second Empire. You are looking at a structure that was specifically intended to serve as a cultural instrument for the regime, anchoring a new, more spacious vision of Paris.