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

Aubervilliers Aubervilliers () is a communes of France, commune in the Seine-Saint-Denis departments of France, department, Île-de-France regions of France, region, northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. Geography Localisation Aubervilliers is one of th ...

Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobi ...

, in the northeast suburbs of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France, standing on Rue de la Commune de Paris.

History

Following the French Revolution, the town council initially held its meetings in the local boys' school. It then relocated to a private house on the corner of Passage Saint-Christophe and Rue de la Commune de Paris. In 1844, the town council decided to commission a dedicated town hall. The site they selected was a triangular area of land occupied by an old cemetery, which had been established by the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Vertus and cleared in 1824. The new building was designed by Jacques Paul Lequeux 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

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone and was officially opened in November 1849. The design originally involved a symmetrical main frontage of eight bays facing onto Rue de la Commune de Paris. The two central bays featured a pair of doorways, flanked by fluted

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

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 a

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

and an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

. The other bays on the ground floor were fenestrated by

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 with moulded surrounds, while the bays on the upper two floors were fenestrated by casement windows with

shutters A window shutter is a solid and stable window covering usually consisting of a frame of vertical stiles and horizontal rails (top, centre and bottom). Set within this frame can be louvers (both operable or fixed, horizontal or vertical), solid ...

. At roof level, above the two central bays, there was a curved pediment containing a

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 ...

and, behind it, a square clock tower with an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

-shaped

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

and a

bell-cote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

. Internally, the principal rooms were the Salle du Conseil (council chamber), the Salles des Commissions (commissions room) and the Salon d'Honneur (room of honour). Between 1858 and 1861, the building was extended, with a new wing stretching along Rue de Moutier. The east end of the extension created two extra bays, slightly projecting forward, on the right of the main frontage. The extension enabled the complex to accommodate a police station, a fire station and a boys' school, although the school moved out in 1878. The police service and fire service moved out of the building at the turn of the century, and a bust of

Jean Jaurès Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (3 September 185931 July 1914), commonly referred to as Jean Jaurès (; ), was a French socialist leader. Initially a Moderate Republican, he later became a social democrat and one of the first possibi ...

by the sculptor Gabriel Pech was installed in the council chamber in 1914. A war memorial, in the form of a bronze female figure holding a baby surrounded by fallen soldiers and intended to commemorate the lives of local service personnel killed in 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 ...

, was created by the sculptor, Adolfo Cipriani, and unveiled inside the town hall in 1925. A further extension, along Avenue de la République, was completed in 1926, giving the complex is triangular shape. Two large paintings by

Gaston Balande Gaston Balande (born 1880 in Madrid, died 1971 in Paris), was a French painter and illustrator . Biography Gaston Balande learnt to draw by copying the prints and chromolithographs he saw on the market stalls at Saujon where he lived. He clea ...

, portraying allegories of abundance & peace and of work, were installed in the commissions room in the early 1930s. During the Paris insurrection of 19 August 1944, part 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 ...

, a Spanish soldier, Eustaquio Pino, and some 30 members of the

French Forces of the Interior The French Forces of the Interior (FFI; ) were French resistance fighters in the later stages of World War II. Charles de Gaulle used it as a formal name for the resistance fighters. The change in designation of these groups to FFI occurred as F ...

seized the town hall. In continued fighting, another member of the French Forces of the Interior, Lucien Leveau, was killed at the entrance of the building on 22 August 1944. An additional panel, this time by

Boris Taslitzky Boris Taslitzky, sometimes Boris Tazlitsky (September 30, 1911 – December 9, 2005), was a French painter with left-wing sympathies, best known for his figurative depictions of some difficult moments in the history of the twentieth century. His ...

, depicting liberation, was installed in the commissions room after the war. In the early 1990s, the complex was refurbished and the main entrance, which had been on Avenue de la République since the 1920s, was moved to the centre of the main façade.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1849 City and town halls in France 1849 establishments in France