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

Chelles, Seine-et-Marne Chelles () is a Communes of France, commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris ...

, in the eastern 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 ...

, standing on Parc du souvenir Emile Fouchard.

History

Following the French Revolution, the town council initially met in the "Grenier Neuf" (New Attic), a building which had been used by the nuns of

Chelles Abbey Chelles Abbey () was a Frankish monastery founded around 657/660 during the early medieval period. It was intended initially as a monastery for women; then its reputation for great learning grew, and when men wanted to follow the monastic life, a ...

. The council then briefly held meetings in a room in the local guardhouse, but subsequent meetings were generally held in the mayor's private house. However, in the mid-19th century, the council decided to commission a dedicated town hall. The site they selected was on the corner of Rue Louis Éterlet and Rue Adolphe Besson. The new building was designed by Jean-Paul Mabille 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 by the mayor, Charles Félix Buignet, on 16 August 1862. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing the corner of the two streets. The central bay featured a round headed opening with a moulded surround on the ground floor, and a

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 ...

with a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

and a triangular pediment on the first floor. The central bay was surmounted by a clock 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 a segmental pediment, and there was an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

lantern A lantern is a source of lighting, often portable. It typically features a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle, a oil lamp, wick in oil, or a thermoluminescence, thermoluminescent Gas mantle, mesh, and often a ...

behind the clock. The outer bays were fenestrated by round headed windows on the ground floor and by casement windows with balustrades and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s on the first floor. The building was badly damaged in 1870, during the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, but subsequently restored. Following significant population growth in the early decades of the 20th century, the town council led by the mayor, Émile Fouchard, decided to acquire a more substantial property for municipal use. The property they selected was just to the west of the old town hall, on the site of

. During the French Revolution, the abbey was destroyed and the nuns driven out. A local resident, Jean-Jacques Gasnier-Guy, acquired the site, including the cloisters of the abbey and the surrounding park, in the mid-19th century. He commissioned the current building, which was designed in the neoclassical style, 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 ...

and was completed in around 1850. The new building incorporated the cloisters of the old abbey. The original design involved a main frontage of eight bays facing southwest onto the park. The central section of two bays was four storeys high, while the wings of three bays each were two storeys high. There was a segmental headed doorway in the second bay on the left, while the other bays were fenestrated with

s. At roof level, there was a pediment above the central section. The building passed to Jean-Jacques's son, Philippe Ambroise Gasnier-Guy, in 1872, and then to Philippe's widow, Jeanne Louise Estelle Koller in 1888. After Estelle's death in 1936, the town council acquired the building in 1937. It was then converted for municipal use and was officially re-opened by Fouchard on 1 April 1938. During the Paris insurrection, part of 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 ...

, 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 on 23 August 1944. However, after two days of fighting, German troops recaptured the building. They then arrested 25 local people at random, and lined up 14 of them against the wall of the town hall and shot them. They also blew up the central section of the town hall, using dynamite, before departing. The central section of the town hall was subsequently rebuilt but with three storeys instead of four. Meanwhile, the old town hall, which had been converted into a police station in 1938, became the Alfred Bonno Museum in 1950. Two wings were added to the rear of the new town hall, along the axis of the original abbey buildings, in the 1990s.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1850 City and town halls in France 1850 establishments in France