Galeries Lafayette Haussmann
Under the great glass dome on Boulevard Haussmann, a department store turned shopping into a spectacle of light.
At a glance
The flagship Galeries Lafayette stands on Boulevard Haussmann, behind the Opéra. Théophile Bader built the business into a Belle Époque institution. Its centre is not a sales floor but a void: a tall atrium crowned by a neo-Byzantine dome of coloured glass and steel, finished in 1912. Shoppers look up before they look at the counters.
Key facts
- Location: 40 Boulevard Haussmann, 9th arrondissement, Paris
- Architects: Georges Chedanne, then his pupil Ferdinand Chanut
- Dome and Art Nouveau staircases: completed 1912
- Style: Art Nouveau, Belle Époque
- Function: department store, still trading
History
Bader and his cousin Alphonse Kahn opened a small shop near the corner of Rue La Fayette in the 1890s. Demand outgrew it fast. Bader commissioned Georges Chedanne for the first major rebuilding, finished in 1907.
Chedanne’s pupil Ferdinand Chanut then carried the work forward on the Haussmann site. The glass-and-steel dome and the sweeping Art Nouveau staircases were finished in 1912. The staircases were later removed, but the dome survived every renovation that followed.
What you see
The coupole rises in tiers of stained glass, its ribs picked out in gold and deep blue. The effect is deliberately church-like: a commercial nave lit from above. From the upper balconies the floor below shrinks to a pattern, and the dome fills the eye. Few European stores put their best architecture this high off the ground.
Practical information
- Open: Monday to Sunday, standard retail hours
- Cost: free to enter
- Best for: the dome and the rooftop terrace view over Paris
- Time needed: 45–60 minutes
Getting there
Métro Chaussée d’Antin–La Fayette (lines 7 and 9) sits at the door. Opéra and Havre–Caumartin are a short walk. From Gare Saint-Lazare it is under ten minutes on foot.
Nearby
- Printemps Haussmann — the rival store next door, with its own stained-glass cupola
- Palais Garnier — the opera house two blocks south
Sources
- Encyclopædia Britannica / Wikipedia — Galeries Lafayette
- Groupe Galeries Lafayette — heritage pages on the Coupole
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
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