Stark and haunting, this wartime documentary card shows the Palais de Justice in Reims as German artillery left it during the First World War — the neoclassical portico with its Ionic columns still defiantly upright, but the roof behind it gutted, upper windows blown out, and the soaring Gothic pinnacles of Reims Cathedral looming ghostlike through the smoke-blackened upper right corner, themselves ravaged by the same bombardment that shocked the civilized world in September 1914. Published by L.C.H. – Visé, Paris as part of their "La Guerre 1914–18" series, these cards were produced both as news documents and as souvenirs of French suffering and resilience; civilians, soldiers, and international sympathizers collected them avidly. The small faint stamp impression on the reverse (a Nantes control mark) suggests this card moved through some administrative channel. The bilingual caption — "Palais de Justice / Courts of Law" — targets both French and English-speaking audiences, reflecting the Allied solidarity of the period.