The Moulin Rouge’s red windmill recalls the many windmills that once crowned Montmartre’s hill. Opened in 1889, the cabaret became a stage for popular dance, nightlife, and a visual image of modern Paris.
Quick facts
Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler opened the Moulin Rouge on October 6, 1889, in Paris’s 18th arrondissement.
The venue’s quadrille réaliste became internationally associated with the French cancan, while performers La Goulue and Valentin le Désossé became early stars.
After a destructive 1915 fire, the Moulin Rouge was rebuilt and transformed in 1925; replacement windmill sails began turning again in July 2025 after their 2024 collapse.
Get directions to Moulin Rouge. Confirm the visitor entrance and current access with the venue before travelling.
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At Place Blanche, the Moulin Rouge’s red windmill gives a working cabaret the silhouette of a village landmark. That contrast tells a story about Montmartre: a former rural hill, once dotted with working mills, becoming one of Paris’s most visible districts of entertainment. The venue opened in Paris’s 18th arrondissement in 1889, at the foot of the Butte, as the city absorbed the hill and its pleasures into metropolitan life.
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