Published on
24/06/2026 - 16:53 GMT+2
Almost 200 years after it first opened in 1852, the Cirque d'Hiver, the famous Parisian performance venue, has just embarked on renovation work aimed at restoring its original splendour.
The project began this week with the restoration of around twenty ornamental frescoes dating from the Second Empire and located above the seating. They form a kind of historical timeline of the relationship between humans and horses, with equestrian sports having long been Parisians' favourite spectacle.
"We move forward in stages: we take everything down, we inspect the site, we carry out a kind of assessment, both of its condition in terms of safety and of its overall state: is it damaged, badly damaged, salvageable, beyond repair", explains Stéphane Millet, the architect and engineer in charge of renovating the Cirque d'Hiver.
