LE CASINO ET SON ARCHITECTURE

Listed as a Historic Monument.
The casino dates from 1878 and 1929. The entrance hall, staircase, façade, gallery, grounds, auditorium and pavilion were listed in 1999.

The Casino is emblematic of Luchon’s Belle Époque architecture.
The Luchon Casino was built in 1880 by the architect Raymond Castex, who took over the project from Edmond Chambert. For its time, it was one of the finest examples of its kind in France.

Built in a classical style, the building comprises a main block, flanked by two L-shaped wings, and a façade 100 metres long. Featuring an eclectic Second Empire architectural style, it is characterised by the polychromatic use of brick and stone. With the railway having recently reached Luchon, it was now easy to have materials delivered from far afield.
It is a celebratory piece of architecture, a palace of pleasure where no expense was spared on either space or scale: a superb Napoleon III theatre, concert halls, a restaurant, games rooms and lounges alternate in styles ranging from Moorish to Art Nouveau. Until 1925, the Casino housed the museum’s collections in the salons on the second floor.

The façade was modernised in 1929 in the ‘Art Deco’ style by Henri Martin: with a blast of dynamite, the majestic stone staircase gave way to a large glass-fronted gallery overlooking the terraces and gardens.
The theatre has hosted a long line of artists: Sydney Bechet, La Belle Otero, Sacha Guitry, Charles Trenet, Stéphane Grappelli; and in the late 1950s, it hosted the ‘Voix d’Or’ singing competition on several occasions. More recently, it has been frequented by Michel Galabru and the many artists who come every year to present their films at the Luchon Television Festival. The Casino houses Luchon’s village hall, which was completely renovated in 2006 and now bears the name of Henry Pac, a poet, writer and iconic figure of Luchon.

On the edge of the esplanade stands the ‘Pavillon Normand’, built for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair and subsequently moved to Luchon at the request of Paul Bonnemaison, who served as mayor from 1894 to 1912. It is constructed of half-timbering, cement-bonded brickwork and a flat-tiled roof supported by a colossal 20th-century roof structure, the work of master carpenters.
Surrounding the park, at number 10 Boulevard Edmond Rostand, stands the Villa Julia, built in 1880. It was here that Edmond Rostand spent his summers during the first 22 years of his life and wrote the poems ‘Les Musardises’. His wooden balcony is said to have inspired the author to write the famous balcony scene in *Cyrano de Bergerac*. It was for health reasons that Edmond Rostand left Luchon for Cambo in the Basque Country. In a letter to his friend Henry de Gorsse, he wrote: “I shall never return to Luchon because… I was too happy there…”.

As you walk along the Pique on the Boulevard de Gorsse, the villas follow one after another. First comes Villa Le Pigné, a Romantic-style villa with turrets, which hosted Sacha Guitry and Yvonne Printemps when they came to take the waters in Luchon. Next, Villa Santa-Maria (barely visible from the street) is the former residence of Princess Narishkine, a Russian aristocrat and wife of Alexandre Dumas. Further on is Villa Raphaël, where Clémenceau stayed in the 1900s. It was later occupied by Mata Hari and served as Gestapo headquarters during the Second World War. On the right bank of the Pique, the Russian and Persian chalets, dating from 1860, were the residence of the princess’s mother. They symbolise the European aristocratic holidays of the Belle Époque. This juxtaposition of two architectural styles – neoclassical and picturesque – is highly representative of the eclecticism that was in vogue in the last century.
At the end of the boulevard stands the Ramel Hospice (Villa Bertin), where Prince Napoleon resided in 1867. This residence, in the distinctive Second Empire style, is also the work of Chambert.
On Place Lézat, the Hôtel Majestic, built in 1880, served for many years as an annex to Toulouse’s hospitals. In the centre of the roundabout stands the statue of François I and his sister Marguerite. It is a work by Eugène Guillaume dating from 1905.

On the other side of the Casino park, on the corner of Place Richelieu and Avenue Boularan, the two semi-detached houses were the residence of Gustave Flaubert during his visits to Luchon. Along Boulevard Charles Tron stands Villa Luisa, which dates from 1870. The princely family of Monaco used to stay there; Prince Rainier spent several summers of his childhood there and, in 1930, presided over the flower festival. At the rear, the former stables have been converted into a detached house. They can be recognised by the horse’s head above the façade.

A little further on, the Pyrénées Palace, designed in 1911 by Edouard Niermans, is a former hotel that has now been converted into flats. To enable hotel guests to reach the Casino safely, an underground tunnel linked the two buildings.