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Send to a friendOrigin of the name La Samaritaine
The department store owes its name to the hydraulic pump installed near the Pont-Neuf and which operated from 1609 to 1813. On the front of the pump was a gilded bas relief showing the good Samaritan talking to the Christ at Jacob's well.
Architecture
Located between the Louvre and Notre-Dame, La Samaritaine is in fact an architectural monument in which Art Nouveau and Art Déco blend harmoniously. Frantz Jourdain (1847-1935), an avant-garde artist of his time and enamoured of Art Nouveau, was the main architect, assisted by his friend and partner Henri Sauvage, who designed many of the Art Déco elements in the building, an architectural style of which he was very fond.
La Samaritaine in numbers
* 32 000 square metres of commercial floor space, spread over seven levels * 1450 employees (including 450 product demonstrators) * Between 15 000 and 50 000 visitors each day * 4 restaurants, Le Toupary, Cojean, Piace Caffe and Bert's * 2 delicious interludes at Mariage Frères and Hédiard * A panoramic terrace on the 11th and top floor, situated 74 metres above street level * 133 years and still going strong.