The Post Office

In June of 1875 the development of the Post Office service makes a move to a new location necessary. The decision to build a new place for it will be made in 1919; it will be next to the Place des Épars. The new building broke from the city dwellers’ tradition of that time. Today it houses the Apostrophe media library.

At the end of the 19th century, several building projects were not followed up on. One had to wait until June of 1919 before a solution could be designed; this would consist of building of the horse market on a detached property. On September 24, 1919, after deliberations, City Council ratified this choice. A protocol signed during 1919 provides for the free transfer, by the city, of a 1,338 square meter plot to the State, which will assume responsibility for the building’s construction. The choice of building site breaks with the population’s tradition, but its purpose is to have it adhere to the town improvement policy that was developed over the 19th century. Situated between two high points around the “city tower,” Place Châtelet with its “arc de triomphe” which is a memorial to the children from Eure-et-Loir who died for the homeland, and the Place des Épars, with its Marceau statue, the new Post Office is presented as a masterpiece of Chartres urbanization. Its services are finally transferred on June 17, 1928

The architect appointed to carry out the work was Raoul Brandon (1878-1941). A talented “child of the homeland” (he was born in Lucé) and a former student at the Paris School of Fine Arts, he first worked for the Scellier de Gisors workshop. He quickly learned how to develop an intense kind of architectural activity, and he became head of a flourishing concern. He then became well know through his creation of several buildings for a private clientele and because of his participation in numerous international architect competitions.

The building’s façade is a reproduction of a theme that Brandon often used for his Parisian buildings:  it is interplay between corbelled construction and consoles that support a balcony loge. The beautiful architectural effect is product by the building method; arched sidewalls and quoins make up the stone lacing at the façade’s top. Brandon draws his inspiration from the Middle Ages, in particular, from the flamboyant Gothic found with the Cathedral’s new tower. Thus, the Post Office is a contemporary response to the medieval building. A belfry with clocks and the building’s top (which consists of divided roofs, curves, and dormer windows) give the building a distinctive silhouette.

Brandon created images by decorating the building with a series of mosaic designs that amount to a kind of poem dedicated to communication glorified by peace. The mosaics depict the story of a letter carried over land, by rail, by sea, and by air: it refers to the glorious Air Mail period and shows a postman delivering mail to a Beauce peasant, who strangely enough, looks timeless, even though he is wearing a medieval headdress. An olive branch and the Latin word “Pax,” which are inscribed over the building’s entrance and are dominated by the face of Hermès (messenger to the gods), invite one to meditate on peace.

The building, which some in Chartres did not fail to make fun of, referring to it as ‘the Notre Dame of post offices” or “the Saint Brandon Basilica,” was not liked because it was thought to be too pretentious. History has been the real judge! In 1944, the Post Office was added to the Inventory of the Historical Monuments list.