Jean-Pierre Defrance, Jean-Baptiste Le Brument and Charles-Felix Maillet du Boullay
The Hôtel de Ville (French pronunciation:[otɛldəvil], City Hall) is a historic building in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, northern France, standing on Place du Général de Gaulle. It has housed the city council of Rouen since 1800. The garden façade and roofs were designated a monument historique by the French government in 1948.[1]
Earlier buildings
The old Hôtel de Ville on Rue du Gros-Horloge
The city council initially held its meetings in the Halle aux Marchands, close to the Église Saint-Éloi, in the mid-12th century. It then met in a building on Rue du Gros-Horloge, previously belonging to Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, which was granted to them by Philip II in 1220.[2]
After the second Hôtel de Ville became dilapidated and too small to house the city council, a third Hôtel de Ville was erected on Rue du Gros-Horloge to a design by Jacques Gabriel in the Renaissance style in 1607.[3] It was built atop the cellars of the previous building and the ground floor consisted of a series of shopping arcades.[4]
After nearly two centuries of use, the third Hôtel de Ville became inadequate and was sold for commercial use in 1796.[5] The façades of the former Hôtel de Ville were listed as historical monuments in 1966.[6] In the late 18th century, the city council was briefly accommodated in the Hôtel de la Première Présidence on Rue Saint-Lô, which had been designed by Jean-Jacques Martinet and completed in 1721.[7]
Current building
The current Hôtel de Ville was established in the former dormitories of the monks of Saint-Ouen Abbey on a site to the immediate north of the abbey. It was designed by Jean-Pierre Defrance and Jean-Baptiste Le Brument in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in the mid-18th century. However, it became vacant upon its deconsecration in 1790 and the city council decided to acquire the former abbey dormitories and moved into the building in May 1800. A programme of works to convert the former dormitories into a municipal building was carried out to a design by Charles-Felix Maillet du Boullay and was completed in 1825.[8]
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of 19 bays facing onto a new square, with the end sections of the three bays each projected forward as pavilions. The ground floor was rusticated and arcaded with a series of round headed openings. The central section of three bays, which was also projected forward, featured a tetrastyleportico on the first floor: it was formed by Corinthian order columns supporting an entablature and a modillionedpediment, with a coat of arms in the tympanum. The building was fenestrated by casement windows with moulded surrounds and cornices and, at roof level, there was a balustradedparapet. Internally, although the principal room was the council chamber,[9] there was a public library on the first floor[10] and a museum on the second floor.[11]
An equestrian statue of Napoleon by the sculptor, Gabriel-Vital Dubray, was unveiled in front of the building by the industrialist, Henri Barbet, on 15 August 1865.[12][13] The building was badly damaged in a fire on the night of 30 December 1926 and, although the paintings and statues were saved, the municipal archives from 1800 to 1926 were destroyed.[14] The building was subsequently restored to a design by Edmond Lair.[15]
The Hôtel de Ville was occupied by German forces starting in June 1940. On 19 April 1944, during the Second World War, the building was damaged by American aerial bombing.[16] Following the liberation of the town by Canadian troops on 30 August 1944, the French tricolour flag was hoisted on the building by local residents.[17]
