Great domes and circular buildings to display panoramas were built in many of the worlds great cities: the pioneer of early photography Louis Daguerre began his career as a showman of the diorama in London and Paris.
In their prime these were huge structures and were not just restricted to representing landscapes as can be seen from this rare photograph of the painting of "Blucher crossing the Rhine" taken in 1913.
This clumsiness, inert nature, and difficulty of transportation eventually overwhelmed the great advantage of its immersive nature though the Kaiser Panorama was an ingenious attempt to create a more versatile structure. Note how the viewing position has changed to being on the outside looking in. A number of variations on the initial idea were tried (such as the Frauenkirche projection, viewed by looking at a special distorting glass but none overcame the basic limitations of the system.
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