The opulent Opéra de Paris Garnier was designed by Charles Garnier for Emperor Napoleon III as the main opera house in Paris. It is the most important symbol of the eclectic late nineteenth-century architectural style known as Second Empire.In the mid-nineteenth century, the opera house of Paris was the Opéra Le Peletier, located on the narrow Le Peletier Street in the 9th arrondissement. This opera house was originally built in 1820 as a temporary venue: in response to the assassination of the Duke of Berry in front of the opera house in the Richelieu Street, King Louis XVIII had ordered the immediate demolition of the opera house, so a temporary building was constructed in the Le Peletier Street.History almost repeated itself in 1858 when Emperor Napoleon III survived an assassination attempt in front of the opera house in the Le Peletier street that resulted in eight dead and more than one hundred wounded. The emperor concluded that the street was too prone to attacks and decided to construct a new opera house nearby facing a large open square. This time the old opera house was not demolished, but a fire destroyed it in 1873, shortly before the new opera house was completed.