La Samaritaine

The name of this department store originates from a mechanical marvel that once stood on the nearby Pont Neuf. In the early seventeenth century, King Henri the Fourth commissioned a water pump here to supply the Louvre Palace with water from the Seine. The structure was decorated with a gilded relief depicting the biblical scene of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well. While the pump was demolished in eighteen thirteen, the name persisted in the local memory, and when Ernest Cognacq began selling fabrics nearby, he adopted the name for his own burgeoning business.