The Palais Garnier was designed as part of the great Parisian reconstruction of the Second Empire initiated by Emperor Napoleon III, who chose the Baron Haussmann to supervise the reconstruction. Legend has it that the Emperor’s wife, the Empress Eugénie, asked architect Charles Garnier during the construction as to whether or not the building would be built in the Greek or Roman style, to which he replied: It is in the Napoleon III style, Madame !