The remarkable history of iconic Galeries Lafayette dates from the late nineteenth century and has become a genuine symbol of the “City of Light”, visited by over twenty-five million people annually.
After 130 years of their creation, the Galeries Lafayette are still managed by the same family, the 5th generation. It all began in 1894 on Rue Lafayette in Paris, a few meters from what is today the argest store in Europe (70'000 m²) with 37 million visitors yearly (the 2nd most visited venue in Paris after the Tour Eiffel) when two French cousins Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn inaugurated a 70 m² haberdashery that offered ribbons, trinkets and other feathers to embellish the silhouette. From the 20th century and over the years, the offer extended to Boulevard Haussmann with travel items, toys, fornuture ...
Théophile Bader entrusted architect Georges Chedanne with the first large-scale redevelopment of Boulevard Haussmann, completed in 1907. But it was really in 1912, under the impetus of his pupil Ferdinand Chanut, that the store acquired a new dimension.
A luxury bazaar
It was in 1912 – nicknamed the “flagship year” – that this small family business truly became a major store, acquiring the distinctive architectural features evident today. The cousins wanted to build a “luxury bazaar” dominated by a vast, decked area. The main staircase, built in the form of a ramp, draws its inspiration from the Paris Opera, while the 43-metre high dome of the main hall has become the emblem of Galeries Lafayette. A particular feature is the warmth of light given to the great hall by neo-Byzantine windows.
However, the cousins’ ambition didn’t stop there. No fewer than ninety-six “departments” were added, together with a smoking room, a tea room and a beautiful reading room. A terrace on top of the Galeries Lafayette offers a stunning panorama of Paris. Thus a small store on Hausmann was transformed into an extensive area for shopping and for leisure. It quickly became a must-see for all wealthy foreigners visiting Paris.
Galeries Lafyette Haussmann's department store is the second most visited monument, after the Eiffel Tower, in Paris. It's a favourite stopover for the “greats” of the world. The Duchess of Windsor, the wife of the Aga Khan, Begum and, in March 1960, at the height of the Cold War, Madame Khrushchev have all passed through. On seeing the escalators, she reportedly exclaimed, “It's just like the Moscow metro!” More recently, the store has welcomed Bill Clinton and Prince Charles, who came to inaugurate the London exhibition.
תגובות