LE CAFÉ DES OISEAUX

Established around 1786-1787 rue de la Neuveville on the site where passing troops used to gather, the auditorium became famous when the Café des oiseaux, created by naturalist Louis Poirson, was annexed to it. Its immense collection of naturalized animals earned it a description by the academician Jean Mistler, in his book Gare de l'Est, as being "without doubts the most extraordinary coffee room in Europe" A shed near the Entre-Deux-Ponts district, where the theatre groups used to to perform, was transformed into a real concert hall in the 1780s. Faced with the need to remodel it several times, particularly to meet the problems security, the City of Bar-le-Duc was regularly called upon. The room ended up taking the it was called the "Municipal Theatre" in 1889 before becoming privately owned again after 1914. In 1896 the the first film show in the city. The most important works were started around 1850 by Louis Poirson, who converted the façade in a vestibule open to the street and which created above all a corridor to the right of the theatre leading to the Café of birds opened in 1838. It was here that his collection of quadrupeds, birds, insects was gathered, shells and minerals, arranged in glass shelves around the room. Some objects the decoration (billiard table of Marshal Oudinot, palm tree in painted wood in bronze foliage, fountain...). The façade decorated with Caveneget's sculptures respects the style chosen for theatres at that time. Inspired by classical architecture, it features fluted columns of Ionic and Corinthian orders, a frieze with triglyphs and triangular pediments. On the ground floor, a gallery opens on the street through arcades. Originally, a reference was made to the theatre in the upper part of the building, with the sculptures of the Comedy and Tragedy framing the coat of arms of Bar-le-Duc and four busts of authors arranged on the balustrade of the roof terrace. Poirson's incredible collection of more than fifty thousand pieces was dispersed after world War II. The fountain that stood in the centre of the café for more than a century was found in 1993. It has been installed since then on the esplanade of the castle in the Upper Town.