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

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Caye ...

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, on the northern coast of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, standing on Rue de Rémire. It has been included on the '' Inventaire général des monuments'' by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...

since 2002.

History

The first town hall in Cayenne was a building known as Maison Ceïde on what is now Avenue du Général de Gaulle. It was built using

timber frame Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

construction techniques and was completed in the 18th century. The original structure evolved and, by 1842, involved a symmetrical main frontage consisting of a main block and two square-shaped

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 facing onto Avenue du Général de Gaulle. The main block featured a large round headed opening in the centre bay allowing access to a courtyard at the centre of the building. The first floor was fronted by a covered walkway which connected the two pavilions, and which was

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber framing, timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of incr ...

out over the pavement. There was a second floor which was fenestrated by five

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. The building had been the home of a wealthy gold merchant, Victor Ceïde, and, after it ceased serving as the town hall, it became a small shopping centre known as the Galerie des Trois-Fontaines (Gallery of the Three Fountains). The name of the shopping centre recalls the fountains which first provided fresh water to local people from a reservoir on Mount Cépérou in 1867. One of these fountains was located in the courtyard within the building. In the late 19th century, the town council decided to relocate to a more substantial building. The building they selected was the old quartermaster's office on Rue de Rémire, a short distance to the southwest of the first town hall. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of eleven bays facing onto Rue de Rémire. The central three bays were recessed on the ground floor and contained a doorway. The building was fenestrated by a mixture of square-headed and round headed windows. The ground floor windows were equipped 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 ...

and there were four

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

windows at attic level. Following rapid population growth in the early 20th century, the town council led by the mayor, Eugène Gober, decided to demolish the timber-framed town hall on Rue de Rémire and to erect a brick building on the same site. While the construction works were ongoing, the council established its offices in temporary accommodation at Maison Vitalo, on the corner of Rue Arago and Rue Barrat. The new building was designed 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 brick with a

cement render Cement render or cement plaster is the application of a mortar mix of sand and cement, (optionally lime) and water to brick, concrete, stone, or mud brick. It is often textured, colored, or painted after application. It is generally used on ...

under the supervision of the assistant engineer of public works, Paul Amusant, and was completed in 1924. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto Rue de Rémire. The central bay featured a segmental headed doorway with a stone surround and a keystone. The other bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were fenestrated by casement windows with stone surrounds and keystones. There was a balcony with iron railings in front of the central five bays, a clock above the central bay, and two dormer windows at attic level. Internally, the principal rooms were the Bureaux de Maire (mayor's office) on the ground floor and the Salle du Conseil (council chamber) on the first floor.

References

Sources

* {{cite book, url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jogvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 , title=Kalichat Ti nègre, village chinois, first=Toussaint, last= Lentin, year=2017, publisher=Société des écrivains, isbn=978-2342154764 Government buildings completed in 1924 City and town halls in France 1924 establishments in France Buildings and structures in Cayenne