Bazar de la Charité

The Bazar was held in a variety of locations by a consortium of charitable organisations that shared renting fees, acting to reduce costs and group potential buyers.

The 1897 Bazar de la Charité became known for the fire which claimed 126 lives, many of which were notable aristocratic women, including Sophie Charlotte, Duchess of Alençon.

In 1897, the Bazar was located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris at 17 Rue Jean-Goujon, inside a large wooden warehouse which the organisers had reconstituted as a medieval street using painted wood, cardboard, cloth, and papier-mache.

On the afternoon of 4 May, the projectionist's equipment caught fire,[1] and 126 people — mostly aristocratic women wearing impractical and highly flammable corsets and crinoline — died as a result of the following blaze and the panic of the crowd in attendance.

Some of the visitors fleeing through the courtyard were aided in escaping through the windows of the adjacent Hôtel du Palais' kitchen by the hotel's manager, Mme Roche-Sautier, and cook M Gauméry.