Tag Archives: BUILDING (Paris) (7th) – La Pagode (1895)

My Street Photography: Europe 1970s-2000s (11 Photos).

FEATURE image: July 1984. Marienplatz, Munich, Germany. 7.91mb 91%

October 2002. Anne Fontaine, Paris (Marais), France. 204 kb 65%
October 2002. Au Petit Tonneau, 20, rue Surcouf, Paris, 75007. 65%
September 1993. Cathédrale Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte de Nevers, 13th century. Statue (c. 1930?) of St. Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879). Nevers, France. 1.15 mb
October 2002.  La Pagode, 57 bis rue de Babylone and rue Monsieur, Paris, 7th arr., France. 65%

In 1895 M. Morin, an executive at Le Bon Marché, looked to give his wife a gift. Since the 1860s, Japanese art and its influences and practices (known as “japonisme”) had a profound impact on France’s own fine and popular arts, and this craze became even more popular by the 1890s. It was only natural for M. Morin to build a real pagoda as a lavish and fashionable statement next door to the couple’s house in Paris. Pieces were shipped from Asia and reassembled in Paris under the design and direction of Alexandre Marcel (1860-1928) at 57 bis, rue de Babylone on the corner with rue Monsieur in the 7th arrondissement. Built in the middle of a residential neighborhood it boasted all things Japanese including stone figures of dragons, lions, buddhas and birds as well as distinctive Asian-style rooflines. In 1930 it became a 400-seat cinema movie theatre that became an art-house cinema in the 1970s and, after 85 years of operation, closed its doors in 2015. SOURCE: 1000 Buildings of Paris, Kathy Borrus, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2003, p. 275 and http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6906 – retrieved January 4, 2023.

July 1984. Eiffel Tower, Paris, 7th arr., France. 15%
March 2002. Château de Versailles, Versailles, France. 140kb 65%
March 2002. The Louvre (Statue of Winged Victory, c. 200 BCE), Paris. France. 660kb.
June 1984. Vienna, Austria. 15%
July 1984. Dachau Concentration Camp, Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany. 316 kb
July 1984. Neuschwanstein Castle (1869-1886), Hohenschwangau, Germany. 62% 7.85 mb