- La Samaritaine
La Samaritaine is a large
department store inParis ,France , located in the First Arrondissement. The nearest metro station is Pont-Neuf. It is currently owned byLVMH , a luxury-goods maker. Since 2005, the building has been closed for reasons of security and renovation.History
The store was first opened in 1869 by
Ernest Cognacq andMarie-Louise Jaÿ , his wife and incidentally the first clothing vendor atLe Bon Marché , a rival department store. Cognacq began his trade on therue de la Monnaie , starting out on a small scale with a very small boutique. By 1900, the couple had decided to expand their enterprise, giving birth to the large edifice seen today, the "Grands Magasins de La Samaritaine." Inspired by the commercial methods ofAristide Boucicaut to those ofLe Bon Marché , Ernest Cognacq drew upon various sources in organizing the ideal (and ideally managed) department store. Cognacq arranged La Samaritaine as a collection of individually owned stores, each managed by true "petits patrons" who operated in concert yet autonomously.Through the steady acquisition of neighboring buildings, Ernest Cognacq regularly expanded what could no longer be called a "boutique." The surrounding city blocks were entirely reworked and reconstructed progressively from 1883 to 1933. (Notably, between 1903 and 1907, this work was taken on by the architect
Frantz Jourdain , who applied an Art Nouveau aesthetic to the building.) Further structural changes were successfully completed in 1933 byHenri Sauvage who, in his turn, reworked the architecture to reflect the aesthetic principles ofArt Déco . The result was an eleven-story department store, one that is today considered a historical monument.Falling prey to the national deficit of the 1990s, La Samaritaine saw itself shrink: it was bought in 2001 by
LVMH , the luxury-goods company that had just previously purchasedLe Bon Marché . OnJune 15 ,2005 , in order to update the nineteenth-century building to modern standards of security, or for purposes ofrestructuring , as the labor unions believe, the department store was closed. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4082272.stm] . It is estimated that La Samaritaine will reopen its doors by the end of 2011.The name "La Samaritaine" comes from a hydraulic pump installed near the Pont Neuf, which operated from 1609 to 1813. The front of the pump featured a gilded
bas-relief of theGood Samaritan .The store is well-known for its rooftop café, which affords excellent views of the city.
External links
* [http://www.lasamaritaine.com/ Official website]
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