Paris City Hall
By James Monaghan

12 March 2005: The City Hall of Paris (Hôtel de Ville) of Paris has always been situated close to the river Seine in an area known as the Marais, or marsh. In 1357, Etienne Marcel, Provost of the Paris Guild of Merchants, bought the ‘House of Pillars’, on the shingle beach which served as a river port for unloading wheat and wood. It merged into a square, the Place de Grève (or Strand), a place where Parisians often gathered, particularly for public executions. This is where Ravaillac, Henri IV's murderer, was hung, drawn and quartered, and where heretics, and poisoners like La Brinvilliers and La Voisin were burned at the stake.

In 1533, François I decided to endow the city with a Hôtel de Ville which would be worthy of the Parisians. He appointed two architects: an Italian, Dominique de Cortone nicknamed Boccador because he had a red beard and a Frenchman, Pierre Chambiges. Boccador, steeped in the spirit of the Renaissance, drew up the plans of a building which was at the same time tall, spacious, full of light and refined. Building work was not finished until 1628 during the reign of Louis XIII and during the following two centuries no charges were made to the edifice until in 1835, on the incentive of the Prefect of Paris, two wings were added to the main building and were linked to the facade by a gallery, to provide more space for the expanded city government.

This old historic Hôtel de Ville came to a tragic end. The defeat at Sedan in 1870 brought about the fall of the Second Empire and the Parisians, during the revolt of the Commune in 1871, set fire to several symbolic monuments in the city: the Tuileries Palace, The Cour des Comptes (Audit office) and the Hôtel de Ville. There the fire raged for eight days. The city's archives and its art treasures were completely destroyed.

After the fall of the Commune, the government decided to rebuild the Hôtel de Ville. A competition was held and was won by two architects, Ballu and Deperthes who had opted for an identical reconstruction. A national subscription fund brought in the necessary money and after only eight years the building was finished. It had a twofold function as the seat of municipal administration and a place where large receptions could be held. However, when on 13th July 1882 the new building was officially inaugurated, the interior arrangements were not yet finished.

The decoration was entrusted to several successful artists and had to conform to both the pedagogical and aesthetic criteria of the Third Republic. Whereas the historical painter Jean-Paul Laurens related in his paintings highlights of the history of Paris in one room, Georges Bertrand sang the praises of agriculture on the walls and ceiling of the dining room. The decoration of the Salon des Arcades was dominated by the idea of the supremacy and development of fine arts, crafts, science and literature. The pale, hieratic pictures by Puvis de Chavannes contrast well with the worldly inspiration depicted in the allegories of perfume and flowers by Ferrié, music by Gervex and dance by Morot in the Salle des Fêtes.