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Rosa Bouglione died Sunday, August 26 at the age of 107 years. Here, along with her husband Joseph Bouglione, at the Medrano circus in Paris, January 8, 1963. AFP

The legend of the circus and matriarch of the famous family that has been performing for decades at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris, passed away on Sunday, August 26, said his family on Monday 27. Born in Belgium, she had acquired the famous circus of the French capital in 1934, with her husband Joseph Bouglione.

" Until August 26 , she remained the undisputed queen of the circus. For almost a century, Madame Rosa has received the biggest stars and hosted, in this circus temple, the greatest international artists , "said the release of the family Bouglione announcing his death. With his death, it is a true legend of the circus that disappears.

" Child of the ball ", she was born in a trailer December 21, 1910, Ixelles in Belgium, under the name of Rosalie Van Been, in a family who owned a carnival menagerie. By the age of 14, she had made circus her profession, with a serpentine dance number ... in the cage with lions. Under the watchful eye of his father, tamer.

" As long as there are children, there will be circus, " said " Mrs. Rosa "

This disappearance comes as traditional circuses go through a bad patch. They are experiencing a decline in attendance and are subject to increasingly animal-use-related policies . Like the circus Pinder, recently placed in liquidation. The Bouglione family, through the voice of Joseph-Eugène, 86 years old, defended in January the presence of animals on the trail: " The circus without animals is a meal without wine, " he had said, saying occasionally of a demonstration in Paris that his animals, born in zoos, were " in good health ".

After the disappearance in 1987 of her husband Joseph - with whom she acquired the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris in 1934 - many of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren took over the circus. " As long as there are children, there will be circus ... ", confided Rosa. " Five generations, bringing together some 55 young, great and great-great-grandchildren will say goodbye to their emblematic grandmother who bequeathed them the love of the circus, " said the family. The public will be able to gather at its coffin at the Cirque d'Hiver Wednesday, August 29, from 10am to 1pm (8am to 11am UT).

" Like all members of the dynasty, " Rosa Bouglione will then be buried in the cemetery of Lizy-sur-Ourcq, a legendary tradition since the death of her ancestor by marriage Marie-Louis Baglioni (whose name will be Frenchified to become Bouglione). The circus dean had expressed the wish to be buried where her troupe had a habit of stopping every year, explains her family.

(With agencies)