The (, ''

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

'') is a municipal building in

Montbéliard Montbéliard (; traditional ) is a town in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France, about from the border with Switzerland. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department. History Montbéliard is ...

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; ) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, standing on Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville. The building was designated a ''

monument historique () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...

'' by the French government in 1939.

History

The first town hall in Montbéliard was completed around 1470. By the mid-19th century, the old building was dilapidated and local civic leaders decided to demolish it and to erect a new town hall on the same site. After the demolition had been completed, a foundation stone for the new building was laid by the local magistrate at the southwest corner of the building on 23 May 1776. A further foundation stone was laid at the northeast corner of the building in the presence of the young sons of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg on 12 September 1776. The building was designed by Philippe de La Guêpière in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in dark

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

from

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; ; Franconian and ) is a range of medium mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single geomorphological unit and ...

at a cost of 80,000

French livre The livre (abbreviation: Pound sign, £ or Livre tournois, ₶., French language, French for (pound)) was the currency of Kingdom of France and its predecessor states of Francia and West Francia from 781 to 1794. Several different livres exist ...

, and was officially opened in time for the council meeting on 13 November 1778. The design of the new building involved a symmetrical main frontage of 13 bays, with the central section of three bays and the end sections of two bays each, slightly projected forward as

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s. These sections were flanked by

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s supporting the pavilion roofs. The central section featured a short flight of steps leading up to three panelled doorways flanked by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

supporting a

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

with fine iron railings. On the second floor, in the central bay, there was a heraldic shield with the town's

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

surmounted by a scroll inscribed the town's motto "Dieu seul est mon appuy" ("God alone is my support"). At roof level, there was a small belfry: the bell was inscribed with the message "Ave Maria gracia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus" ("Hail Mary, full of grace, may the Lord be with you, blessed are you among women"). The other bays on the ground floor, all bays on the first floor and all bays on the second floor in the pavilion sections were fenestrated with

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s, while the bays on the second floor in the connecting sections were fenestrated with dormer windows.

Stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows depicting the royal

and town's coat of arms were recovered from the old town hall and installed in the new building. The Grand Duke of Russia, Pavel Petrovich, visited the town hall and attended a banquet, hosted by the local magistrate, in 1782. Pavel also made donations to the local hospital and local civic charity. A bronze statue of the

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

, was installed in front of the building on 23 August 1835. A theatre with seating for 500 people, designed by Auguste Goguel, was installed at the back of the complex in 1858. The interior design in the theatre was carried out by

Charles-Antoine Cambon Charles-Antoine Cambon (; 21 April 1802 – 22 October 1875) was a French scenographer, theatrical production designer, who acquired international renown in the Romanticism, Romantic Era. Career Little biographical information exists on Cambo ...

and Joseph François Désiré Thierry. At the end of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, a plaque was installed on the façade of the building inscribed with the words "Les Armées et leurs chefs, Le Gouvernement de la République, le Citoyen Georges Clemenceau, président du conseil, ministre de la guerre, le Maréchal Foch, généralissime des armées alliées, ont bien mérité de la patrie" ("The Armies and their leaders, The Government of the Republic, Citizen Georges Clemenceau, President of the Council, Minister of War, Marshal Foch, Generalissimo of the Allied Armies, deserve the praise of the fatherland"). After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, another plaque was installed inscribed with the words "La première Armée Français commandée par le general de Lattre de Tassigny forgée en Afrique et en Italie débarquée en Provence grossie des forces Français de l'intérieur a libérée Montbéliard le 17 Novembre 1944 dans sa marche de la victoire tout Rhin et Danube" ("The First French Army, commanded by General de Lattre de Tassigny raised in Africa and in Italy, landed in Provence, augmented by the French forces of the interior, liberated Montbéliard on 17 November 1944 during its victory march throughout the Rhine and Danube").

References

Sources

* {{cite book, first=Charles, last= Duvernoy , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aCNwkUeK8xYC , title= Ephémérides du comté de Montbéliard, publisher=Charles Deis, year=1832 Buildings and structures in Montbéliard Government buildings completed in 1778 City and town halls in France 1778 establishments in France Monuments historiques of Doubs