Grand magasin des Galeries Modernes — Arras

The Galeries Modernes were built just after the war, around 1920, as shown by the building permit, following the then-planned alignment of rue Ernestale. This concrete department store occupies a large plot extending across the whole width of the block, as far as rue du Collège. Its seven-bay façade, with the bays separated by vertical brick bands, is widely pierced with windows that light the two storeys, a functional composition that the Inventory links to the modernist architecture of the interwar period. According to the Inventory, it combines this functional character with geometric forms and decoration characteristic of Art Deco: the sawtooth motifs on the spandrels and at the top of the façade, the geometric lettering “Galeries Modernes”, the diamond-shaped grooves of the pediment and the railings with spirals and waves. The building was studied in 2008 by the French general heritage inventory (Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel) as part of the thematic survey of Art Deco heritage in Arras.

Translated from the French original.