Gettysburg Cyclorama

The Gettysburg Cyclorama is a 360-degree painting that places you in the middle of Pickett's Charge on the decisive third day of the Battle. The cyclorama is a huge oil-on-canvas painting of the great historic scene. Viewers stand in the middle of a platform and watch and hear the battle happening around them. The painting is located at Gettysburg National Military Park. The Gettysburg Cyclorama is 377 feet long, 42 feet high and weighs 12.5 tons. The painting is the work of French artist Paul Dominique Philippoteaux. The painting is significant because it brings the fury of the final Confederate assault on July 3, 1863 to life. The Cyclorama gives the viewer a sense of what occurred at the battle of Gettysburg, which was considered to be the turning point of the Civil War. The painting first opened in Chicago in 1883. Gettysburg Cyclorama has an average of 2-6 million tourists each year. The painting took Philippoteaux and a team of assistants more than a year to complete the painting. Philippoteaux and his team went on to paint a second Gettysburg Cyclorama, which opened in Boston in 1884. It was later sold to Gettysburg and was moved to the Gettysburg National Military Park. The Cyclorama highlights Pickett's Charge, the failed infantry assault that was the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg. Some areas that the Cyclorama highlights are Cemetery Ridge, the Angle, and the High-water mark of the Confederacy.