Cahors, best known as the site of Cahors production, boasts far more than just a wine-making role: it is an ancient city with ancient and medieval monuments. However, even in its center there are gaps: to eliminate one of them and the project of a new cinema was supposed to be.
The seven-screen Grand Palais for a total of 1,051 spectators was needed by the city in itself - as a convenient and attractive place for film screenings, but its urban planning role is no less important. It took the place of one of the buildings of the historical barracks, which burned down in 1943, giving the Bessières square a lost regular layout. The vacant lot previously occupied by the parking lot is now landscaped: there are benches made of light concrete, and in the center there is a green oasis with garden furniture, rounded in plan. The square is now paved with clinker paving stones.
The cinema itself consists of two parts: brick and gold, made of perforated metal panels - and both volumes are completely decorated, not only the walls, but also the roofs. The theme of "gold" is developed by the entrance doors and the sign of the cinema on the brick facade. But, for all their showiness, it is not metal parts that play the main role here. More important is the pinkish-beige brickwork, reminiscent of the typical color of Cahors - not only brick, but also stone and plaster.
Significant surfaces of the facade of the cinema received openwork masonry, which lets the sun into the interior - but moderately, given the hot climate, and in the evening allows the building to glow from the inside.
The interior is dominated by wooden details, but there is also a golden metal. The deep blue color is used for the decoration of cinema halls. The project budget was 8.68 million euros. The total area of the cinema, the upper floor of which will in the future be occupied by the Resistance Museum (with a clearly separated independent entrance), is 3,653 m2, and the improvement area is 8,500 m2.
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zooming 1/5 Grand Palais Cinema Photo © Pierre Lasvenes
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zooming 2/5 Grand Palais Cinema Photo © Pierre Lasvenes
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zooming 3/5 Cinema Grand Palais Photo © Pierre Lasvenes
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zooming 4/5 Grand Palais Cinema Photo © Pierre Lasvenes
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zooming 5/5 Cinema Grand Palais. View of the site before the start of construction Photo © Pierre Lasvenes
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zooming 1/4 Grand Palais Cinema Photo © Luc Boegly
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zooming 2/4 Grand Palais Cinema Photo © Luc Boegly
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zooming 3/4 Grand Palais Cinema Photo © Luc Boegly
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zooming 4/4 Grand Palais Cinema Photo © Luc Boegly
