The Palais Rohan is the name of the Hôtel de Ville, or City Hall, of

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

, France. The building was constructed from 1771 to 1784, originally serving as the Archbishop's Palace of Bordeaux.

History

In 1771, the new Archbishop of Bordeaux, Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec, prince of Rohan, decided to rebuild the old medieval archbishop's residence, viewing it as not being worthy of its rank. The new building was designed by the architect Richard-François Bonfin, it took 13 years to build and was completed in 1784. It is a

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a s ...

, "entre cour et jardin" (placed "between a courtyard and a garden"), and features an austere

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

-style façade. Its staircase is considered a masterpiece of stone masonry. After the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, in 1791, the building housed the Gironde department prefecture. In 1837 it became the Bordeaux Town Hall. The municipal council room, designed in 1889, is characteristic of official architecture during the Third Republic. The garden, initially designed in the French formal style, now takes on an English landscape style. Since 1880, it has been bordered by two wings that house the

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux is the fine arts museum of the city of Bordeaux, France. The museum is housed in a dependency of the Palais Rohan in central Bordeaux. Its collections include paintings, sculptures and drawings from the 15t ...

. File:026 - Hôtel de ville Place Pey-Berland - Bordeaux.jpg, Main entrance of the courtyard File:Jardin rohan 2.jpg, Facade at rear overlooking garden

References

External links

The Palais Rohan, quarter of Hôtel de Ville
- Bordeaux Tourism Buildings and structures in Bordeaux Rohan City and town halls in France Houses completed in 1784 Museums in Bordeaux {{NouvelleAquitaine-struct-stub