Interior view
by GARNIER, Charles, Photo
The stairway is the most spectacular element of Garnier’s design. This is emphasized by the fact that it is disguised by the gradation of architectural masses on the exterior. This piece of illusionism, the distillation of the skill of the Beaux-Arts system, rivals that of the great Baroque architects.
Viollet-le-Duc was intent on pointing out the defects of the layout, which he criticized mainly for the excessive size of the interior vestibules compared with the relatively small size of the auditorium: ‘the auditorium seems to have been made for the stairway rather than the stairway for the auditorium’.
View the ground plan of the Garnier Op�ra, Paris.