📚 Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera is not a true story, but it draws on real places, legends, and historical details. The Palais Garnier does have vast underground cellars, including a large water cistern originally built to manage groundwater and later maintained for fire safety. This reservoir — still in existence today — inspired Leroux’s vision of the Phantom’s lair.

📰 In the late 19th century, rumors spread of a machinist’s death in the opera house accident (sometimes linked to the falling chandelier in 1896), and tales of a mysterious figure haunting backstage. Leroux blended these stories into his gothic romance.

🪖 Historical context also influenced details: fire brigades in Paris were organized as military units and sometimes trained in the opera’s underground reservoirs. This real-world backdrop gave credibility to Leroux’s descriptions and later informed Raoul’s commanding presence during crisis scenes in adaptations.

✨ Ultimately, the Phantom remains fictional — a gothic character shaped by Parisian architecture, stage superstition, and Leroux’s imagination.