'Kaiser-panorama' Exhibition by "Màgic 3D"
7 November 2026 – 29 November 2026 · 10:00
Oliva Artés. Museu d'Història de Barcelona, Provençals del Poblenou, Sant Martí
The Kaiser-panorama, or Emperor's Panorama, was a fascinating form of visual entertainment from the late 19th and early 20th centuries that can be considered a true forerunner of cinemas and modern virtual reality. It was invented by the German physicist and entrepreneur August Fuhrmann around the 1880s. Physically, it consisted of a very large, cylindrical wooden cabinet with some twenty-five seats around it. Each seat had a binocular viewer that used stereoscopic photography, that is, two images taken from slightly different angles which, when viewed together, created a striking illusion of three-dimensional depth. The experience for the viewer was highly structured and immersive. Inside the cylinder, a rotating mechanism moved glass slides lit from behind. As the audience looked through the viewer, a small bell rang every few seconds to signal that the image was about to change and move on to the next seat. This allowed middle-class people to enjoy a kind of armchair tourism before moving pictures existed. Collections of images of exotic countries, scientific expeditions, natural disasters, distant cities and major historical events were shown. Fuhrmann was so successful that…
Part of the programme: FotoFest 2026 Festival. See the 13 activities in this programme in Barcelona, from November 6 to 29. All free.
Source: Ajuntament de Barcelona · checked on 2 November 2026