the building's history
The house: from Napoleon's theatre to today
A theatre built for the First Consul, burned in 1870, rebuilt by Gustave Eiffel, and reopened as a cabaret more than a century later.
Choose your Paradis night ↗The house, in four dates
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1802–03 | Built for Napoleon Bonaparte as the Théâtre Latin |
| 1870 | Destroyed by fire during the Franco-Prussian War |
| 1887–89 | Rebuilt by Gustave Eiffel, reopened as Paradis Latin |
| 1977 | Restored and reopened as today's cabaret |
A theatre for the First Consul
Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, had a theatre built on rue des Fossés-Saint-Victor in the Latin Quarter in 1802; it opened the following year and by the 1830s counted Honoré de Balzac and Alexandre Dumas among the writers who came through its doors.
Destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War
The original theatre burned down in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, and the site stood in ruins for the next seventeen years — a gap of almost two decades before anyone rebuilt it.
Gustave Eiffel's reconstruction
Gustave Eiffel rebuilt the hall between 1887 and 1889, in the same years he was raising the tower for that year's Paris Exposition. The renamed Paradis Latin reopened on 20 January 1889, with singer Yvette Guilbert appearing in its opening production.
A warehouse for most of the century
The cabaret closed around 1900, and for most of the twentieth century the building served as a warehouse and small factory rather than a theatre — its stage years largely forgotten.
Rediscovered under a 1970s renovation
Developer Jean Kriegel bought the site in 1973 meaning to build apartments, and found Eiffel's original ironwork still standing under later additions. The find changed the plan: the 720-seat theatre was restored instead of demolished.
Reopened as a cabaret in 1977
Paradis Latin reopened as a cabaret on 14 November 1977. Quick-change artist Arturo Brachetti launched his career on its stage in 1979, and the house has run nightly revues in the decades since, up to today's L'Oiseau Paradis.