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

Vénissieux Vénissieux (; Arpitan language, Arpitan: or in the Lyonnais dialect) is a Communes of France, commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in eastern France. Geography Vénissieux is located on the sou ...

Metropolis of Lyon The Metropolis of Lyon (, ), also known as Grand Lyon (, "Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly-elected metropolitan authority, encompassing both the city of L ...

, eastern France, standing on Avenue Marcel Houël.

History

Following the French Revolution, the new town council met in a building known as the Maison Commune on what is now Rue du Château. It was a modest building with a cell for holding petty criminals in the basement, an assembly room on the ground floor and two rooms on the first floor. By the late 1820s, the building was dilapidated and the council led by the mayor, Étienne Sandier, decided to purchase a new building. They acquired the home of Jean Sandier on Rue de la Brèche (now the east side of Place Léon-Sublet) for FFr 9,000 in August 1835. A programme of conversion works, involving the creation of offices and schoolrooms on the first two floors and apartments for the teachers on the second floor, was completed in 1836. In the late 1870s, following significant population growth, the council led by the mayor, Léon Sublet, decided to demolish the old building and to erect a more substantial town hall on the same site. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 1 July 1880. It was designed by Sieur Bernard 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 from Villebois and La Grive-Saint-Alban and was completed in around 1882. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing west onto what is now Place Léon-Sublet. The central bay, which was slightly projected forward, featured a segmental headed doorway flanked by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

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 French door with a hood mould on the first floor and, at roof level, there was 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 an open

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 ...

. The other bays were fenestrated by segmental headed windows on the ground floor, square headed windows with hood moulds on the first floor, and dormer windows at attic level. Internally, the principal rooms were the classrooms for a girls' school on the ground floor, an assembly room and municipal offices on the first floor, and a library and apartments for the town secretary and the teachers on the second floor. After heavy casualties inflicted during allied bombings on the Berliet factory, which manufactured military vehicles, and its surroundings, in May 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 ...

, the Chief of the French State, Marshal

Philippe Pétain Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (; 24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), better known as Marshal Pétain (, ), was a French marshal who commanded the French Army in World War I and later became the head of the Collaboration with Nazi Ger ...

, toured the area, visiting the factory and town hall and met with the mayor, Marcel Juveneton. Following the liberation of the town on 2 September 1944, a member of the local liberation committee, Marguerite Carlet, hoisted the French tricolour over the town hall. In the 1960s, the council led by the mayor, Louis Dupic, decided to commission a modern town hall. The site they selected was at the southern end of the former Sandier estate and the council secured it by compulsory purchase in 1964. The new building was designed in the modern style, built in concrete and glass and was completed in around 1970. The layout involved a three-storey entrance block, approached by a long flight of steps, on the left and a ten-storey tower block on the right, both facing onto Avenue Marcel Houël. Both structures were faced with alternating rows of plate glass and black panels. Internally, the principal room was the Salle du Conseil (council chamber). Meanwhile, the Musée Communal de la Résistance et de la Déportation (Museum of the Resistance and Deportation), established in November 1979, adapted the old town hall for use as its home. Following the death of the commander 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 ...

in the

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...

, Colonel

Henri Rol-Tanguy Henri Rol-Tanguy (; 12 June 1908 – 8 September 2002) was a French Communism, communist and leader in the French Resistance, Resistance against Nazi Germany in World War II. At his death ''The New York Times'' called him "one of France's mo ...

, the building itself became known as the Maison Rol-Tanguy, to commemorate his life. After the board of trustees of the museum donated the collection to the town in September 2010, the council decided to expand the displays so that they covered a broad range of history ranging right back as the Roman era. For that purpose, in early 2024, works started to convert the building for use as a cultural centre to be known as the Maison des Mémoires (House of Memories). It is scheduled to open in 2027.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1970 City and town halls in France 1970 establishments in France