Bazar de la Charité: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 13:22, 12 March 2010

The Bazar de la Charité was an annual charity event organized by the French Catholic aristocracy in Paris from 1885 onwards. It is best known for the fire at the 1897 bazaar that claimed 126 lives, many of them aristocratic women, the most notable of whom was Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Alençon, neé Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria, sister of the famous Empress Sissi.

The Bazar de la Charité was held annually in a variety of locations, by a consortium of charitable organizations that joined to share renting fees, reducing costs and grouping potential buyers.

Fire of 1897

In 1897 the Bazar was held in a large wooden shed, 80 by 13 metres, at Rue Jean-Goujon 17, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Within this shed a fantasy medieval street was built with wood, cardboard, cloth and papier-mache, that would contribute considerably to the disaster.^[1] A novel attraction at this Bazar was a room where the new spectacle of the time could be admired, moving images projected by the Lumière brothers technology.

On the afternoon of 4 May, the second of the planned four days of the bazaar, the projectionist's equipment (using a system of ether and oxygen rather than electricity) caught fire.^[2] The resulting blaze, and the panic of the crowd, claimed the lives of 126 people, mostly aristocratic women. The disaster was reported nationally and internationally.

Some of the visitors fleeing through the courtyard were saved by the cooks of the Hôtel du Palais, MM. Gomery and Edward Vaudier, who loosened three bars from the kitchen windows to help them escape.^[3]

The identification of charred remains by the use of dental records was a landmark in the early history of forensic dentistry.

Chapel of Our Lady of Consolation

An expiatory chapel, Notre-Dame de Consolation, was built on the location of the Bazar. This chapel is dedicated to victims of fire and houses the Italian Catholic community in Paris.

Bibliography

^ Michèle Fontana, "Faits divers et politique: l'incendie du Bazar de la Charité (1897)", in Regards popularies sur la violence, edited by Mireille Piarotas (Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne, 2000), pp. 101-107.
^ Richard Abel, The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914 (University of California Press, 1994), p. 17.
^ Geoffrey Cubitt, "Martyrs of Charity, Heroes of Solidarity: Catholic and Republican Responses to the Fire at the Bazar de la Charité, Paris, 1897", French History 21/3 (2007), pp. 331-352.

Marguerite Bourcet, Le Duc et la Duchesse d'Alençon: un couple de tragédie, 393 pages, Perrin, 1939 (2003 reprint, ISBN 2-262-02069-8)
Dominique Paoli, Il y a cent ans: l'incendie du Bazar de la Charité, Paris, MDC, 1997.

Links

[1] Michèle Fontana, "Faits divers et politique: l'incendie du Bazar de la Charité (1897)", in Regards popularies sur la violence, edited by Mireille Piarotas (Publications de l'Université de Saint-Étienne, 2000), pp. 101-107.

[2] Richard Abel, The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896-1914 (University of California Press, 1994), p. 17.

[3] Geoffrey Cubitt, "Martyrs of Charity, Heroes of Solidarity: Catholic and Republican Responses to the Fire at the Bazar de la Charité, Paris, 1897", French History 21/3 (2007), pp. 331-352.

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{AFC submission|H|We cannot [[WP:V|verify]] whether this information is all contained within the two books that are used as references; all facts should have an in-line citation to a [[WP:RS|reliable source]]. Perhaps some of this content is [[WP:OR|original research]], which is not permitted. Please see [[Referencing for beginners]] for help with this.|ts=20100310110847|u=93.40.72.137|ns=5}}
-<!-- Important: please do not remove the above line. We will not notice your submission or be able to process it if the above line is removed.  -->
 The '''Bazar de la Charité''' was an annual charity event organized by the French Catholic aristocracy in Paris from 1885 onwards. It is best known for the fire at the 1897 bazaar that claimed 126 lives, many of them aristocratic women, the most notable of whom was Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Alençon, neé [[Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria]], sister of the famous Empress Sissi.