Theatre · France · Demolished

Le Chat Noir

Le Chat Noir was a celebrated late-19th-century cabaret in Montmartre, Paris, founded by Rodolphe Salis and famous for its variety shows and pioneering shadow theatre. It operated in a sequence of small, closely packed urban houses and rooms that combined a street-level café/salle with an upstairs puppet/shadow theatre and artist salons. The original incarnation and the larger Rue Victor‑Massé site that hosted the shadow plays no longer survive.

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Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

Its prime

1890

Today

Demolished

As it stood in 1890

What Le Chat Noir looked like in its prime.

A narrow three‑storey, timber‑framed Parisian front with exposed dark beams set into pale infill, stacked shuttered windows and a small pitched roof; large painted lettering reading “Caveau Chat Noir” across the second storey and a rectangular “CHAT‑NOIR” sign above the ground awning. Ground level has a wide double‑door/garage entrance, a framed poster board, a projecting fabric awning and cast‑iron wall lanterns; the façade sits flush with adjacent taller shopfronts on a busy boulevard.

Step inside

7 places to explore in 1890.

The record describes 7 distinct spots at Le Chat Noir, including 4 interiors: ground‑floor performance room (salle), second‑floor shadow theatre and screen, puppet workshop and props storage and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.

Boulevard approach, facing the façadeStreet entrance and poster caseGround‑floor performance room (salle)Second‑floor shadow theatre and screenPuppet workshop and props storageNarrow internal staircase and landingUpper window and shuttered balcony

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