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

Sarcelles Sarcelles () is a Communes of France, commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero#France, centre of Paris. Sarcelles is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Val-d'Oise Departments of Franc ...

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.< ...

in the northern 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 Rue de la Résistance. 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 2011.

History

The first town hall in Sarcelles was erected on the site of an old cemetery just to the southwest of the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul on what was the Place de la Mairie (now Place de la Libération). The 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

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 the 19th century. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing southwest onto the Place de la Mairie. The central bay featured a short flight of steps leading up to a doorway with a moulded surround and triangular pediment. The building was 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 shutters on both floors. A white stone monument, intended to commemorate the life of Marius Galvani, a medical doctor who tended to the community during the cholera pandemic in 1892 and who served as a member of the council, was erected in front of the old town hall in 1938. In the early 1960s, there was a significant increase in population, largely associated with the repatriation of French people from

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

. Annexes to the town hall were established within the new housing estates, but increasingly Sarcelles became a town of two separate communities, one for the old rural community, and one for the new urban community. In this context the town council decided to acquire a more substantial building to provide municipal services to both communities. The building they selected was the old Manor of Miraville which had been erected on the site of the Château de Richebourg which was burnt down by

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

in 1567. The manor house was commissioned by a lace merchant, Frédéric Aylé, and benefited from a large estate known as Miraville Park. It was designed by

Paul Boeswillwald Paul Louis Boeswillwald (October 22, 1844, in Paris – July 17, 1931, in Paris) was a French architect and art historian. Biography Son of the architect Émile Boeswillwald and father of the painter Émile Artus Boeswillwald, he was a pupil ...

in the

Renaissance Revival style Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

, built in brick with

half-timber 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 ...

dressings, and was completed in 1885. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing west towards Miraville Park. The central bay, which was slightly projected forward, featured a

porte-cochère A porte-cochère (; ; ; ) is a doorway to a building or courtyard, "often very grand," through which vehicles can enter from the street or a covered porch-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which originally a ...

supporting a

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

; there was a tri-partite window 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

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 ...

on the first floor, and a half-timbered gable above. The outer bays contained French doors on the ground floor,

s on the first floor, and

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. Internally, there was a grand staircase and some of the windows were originally decorated with fine

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

dating from the 16th century. Aylé's son, Frédéric-Henri Aylé, sold the house to a hotelier, René Massiaux, in 1942. After 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 plaque to commemorate the lives of local people who had died in the service 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 ...

was installed in Miraville Park. The manor house served as a hotel until the town council acquired both the manor house and Miraville Park in 1964. A Salle du Conseil et des Mariages (council chamber and wedding room) was subsequently established in the building. The building went on to serve as the office of several prominent mayors including

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn (; born 25 April 1949), also known as DSK, is a French economist and politician who served as the tenth managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and was a member of the French Socialist P ...

from 1995 and

François Pupponi François Pupponi (born 31 July 1962) is a French politician. Born in Nantua in Eastern France, he is of Corsican people, Corsican descent. He has served as the mayor of Sarcelles between 1997 and 2017. He also serves as a member of the Nationa ...

from 1997.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1885 City and town halls in France 1885 establishments in France Monuments historiques of Val-d'Oise