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

Compiègne Compiègne (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department of northern France. It is located on the river Oise (river), Oise, and its inhabitants are called ''Compiégnois'' (). Administration Compiègne is t ...

Oise Oise ( ; ; ) is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise. Inhabitants of the department are called ''Oisiens'' () or ''Isariens'', after the Latin name for the river, Isara. It had a population of 829,419 in 2019.< ...

, northern France, standing on Place de l'Hôtel de Ville. The building 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 1840.

History

In 1397, a local merchant, Jean Loutrel, bequeathed two properties on the northeast side of Place du Marché au Blé (now Place de l'Hôtel de Ville) for the use of the aldermen. A century later, the aldermen decided to demolish the old properties and to commission a town hall on the site. The building was designed and built by Pierre Navyer (known as Pierre de Meaux) in the

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

. The aldermen held their first meeting in the main hall there in January 1513 and all the additional sculptures and other works were fully complete by 1530. The design involved a near-symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto Place du Marché au Blé. The central bay featured three small arched windows spaced out on an irregular basis on the ground floor, a large niche originally containing two figures of the

Annunciation The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...

sculpted by Nicolas d'Estrée on the first floor, and a -high clock tower above. The clock tower was decorated by a pair of turrets at the front corners and surmounted by 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 ...

. The outer bays were fenestrated by

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed and transomed windows and, at roof level, there was a elaborate

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 ...

which connected a pair of

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. Internally, the principal rooms included the Salle de la justice de Paix, later known as the Salle du Conseil (council chamber). The original sculptures in the niche were replaced by a statue of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, sculpted by Gilles Guérin, in 1655 but this was torn down during the French Revolution. The building was expanded by the addition of two wings: the right wing (i.e. south wing) was built in 1650 and the left wing (i.e. north wing) was completed in 1867. An equestrian statue of

Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second ...

(who was the monarch at the time of the construction of the building) sculpted by Henri Alfred Jacquemart was installed in the niche on the first floor in 1869. The statues on the front of the building were restored under the supervision of

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (; 27 January 181417 September 1879) was a French architect and author, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, ...

around the same time: they depicted Charles VII,

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

, Saint Denis, Saint Louis,

Pierre d'Ailly Pierre d'Ailly (; ; 13519 August 1420) was a French theologian, astrologer and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Academic career D'Ailly was born in Compiègne in 1350 or 1351 of a prosperous bourgeois family. He studied in Paris at the Co ...

and

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

. A statue of Joan of Arc, based on a drawing by the sculptor, Frédéric-Étienne Leroux, was installed in front of the town hall in 1880. Between 1904 and 1907, the artist, Raymond Fournier-Sarlovèze, painted nine scenes depicting important local events for the walls of the council chamber. During the

German spring offensive The German spring offensive, also known as ''Kaiserschlacht'' ("Kaiser's Battle") or the Ludendorff offensive, was a series of German Empire, German attacks along the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during the World War I, First Wor ...

in spring 1918, part of 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 ...

, the whole town, including the town hall, was evacuated due to the proximity of the fighting. Following the liberation of the town by American troops on 1 September 1944, 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 ...

, resistance fighters took control of the town hall.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in the 16th century City and town halls in France 1530 establishments in France Compiègne Monuments historiques of Oise