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

Châlons-en-Champagne Châlons-en-Champagne () is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims. Formerly called Châlons ...

, Marne, northeast France, standing on Place du Maréchal Foch. It 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 1932.

History

At least as far back as the 15th century, and possibly before, the aldermen met at the Saint-Esprit Hospital. In the 16th century, they decided to commission a meeting place which would be known as the Maison Commune. The site selected was in the central part of the town (now Place du Maréchal Foch). Construction started in 1553 but was delayed because of the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

. The new building was designed in the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

, 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 completed in 1612. The building featured a series of arches on the ground floor, a series of bi-partite round-headed windows, with colonettes separating the parts, on the first floor, and a series of bi-partite mullioned windows, with curved

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s, at attic level. It also featured

bartizan A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging turret projecting from the walls of late-medieval and early-modern fortifications from the early 14th c ...

s at the corners and 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 ...

al belfry on the roof. In the 1770s, Gaspard-Louis Rouillé d'Orfeuil, who was the local

intendant An intendant (; ; ) was, and sometimes still is, a public official, especially in France, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The intendancy system was a centralizing administrative system developed in France. In the War of the Spanish Success ...

and, as such, the king's representative in the town, decided to demolish the old town centre, including the Maison Commune, and to create a new civic square with a new town hall and theatre, as well as new boulevards. Construction of the town hall started in 1772. It was designed by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand 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 stone and was completed in 1776. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of 11 bays facing onto the square. The ground floor was rusticated. The centre section of three bays, which was slightly projected forward, featured three round headed openings on the ground floor, and a large

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

spanning the first and second floors, formed by six

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns supporting a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

, above. There was a carving depicting a woman attended by two

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...

in the tympanum. Within the portico, there were three French doors with balconies on the first floor, and three panels on the second floor: the centre panel contained a carving of two angels supporting a shield bearing three fleurs-de-lis. The wings were fenestrated by tall

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 on the ground and first floors, and by square casement windows on the second floor. At roof level, there was a balustraded

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

and, behind the central pediment, there was a large

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 ...

, surmounted by a small clock tower with a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

. Internally, the principal rooms were the Salon d'honneur (ballroom), the Salle des Mariages (wedding room) and the Salle du Conseil (council chamber). Four statues of lions created by the sculptor, Antoine Lépine, were installed outside the building in 1778. During the French Revolution, revolutionaries caused damage to the fleurs-de-lis, when they tried to hack them off with a hammer. A series of wooden tablets created by Nicolas Perseval depicting local historical personalities were hung in a corridor on the first floor. The wedding room was decorated with a series of paintings by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand, while the council chamber later featured a painting by Édouard Detaille depicting President Félix Faure and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia inspecting the troops at Camp de Châlons in 1896. On 12 June 1940, during 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 ...

, Lieutenant Paul Loyer of the 485th Regiment of Colonial Pioneers was killed by flying shrapnel while defending the town hall against a German assault on the building. Following the liberation of the town by American troops on 29 August 1944, the local people flocked to the town hall where they were greeted by French officials standing on the balcony. Between 2009 and 2014, a full-height cuboid-shaped extension, enclosing a lift, was built inside the courtyard behind the building at a cost of €2.6 million, allowing improved access for disabled people to the upper floors as well as improved egress in the case of a fire.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1776 City and town halls in France 1776 establishments in France Châlons-en-Champagne Monuments historiques of Marne (department)