Barouche Women" by Louisa May Alcott. Barouche A barouche is a large, open, four-wheeled carriage, both heavy and luxurious, drawn by two horses. It was fashionable throughout the 19th century. Its body provides seats for four passengers, two back-seat passengers vis-à-vis two behind the coachman's high box-seat. A leather roof can be raised to give back-seat passengers some protection from the weather. "Barouche" is an anglicisation of the German word "barutsche", via the Italian "baroccio" or "biroccio" and ultimately from the ancient Roman Empire's Latin "birotus", "two-wheeled". The name thus became a misnomer, as the later form of the carriage had
Barouche distinguished from a barouche by having fold-down occasional seating for the rear-facing passengers, instead of permanent front seats. In Quebec, Canada, "calèche" refers to a two-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle with or without a folding top and with a driver's seat on the splashboard. In the Philippines, the "kalesa" is a one-horse descendant of Spanish Colonial calashes, and is a common sight in older cities such as Manila and Vigan. A barouche was an expensive four-wheeled, shallow vehicle used in the 19th century with two double seats inside, arranged "vis-à-vis", so that the sitters on the front seat face those on the