Town Hall of Bordeaux

The Palais Rohan

Prelates greatly influenced 18th century urban development in Bordeaux transforming entire districts for the construction of their palaces and residences in a show of their power and longevity.

Ferninand Maximilien Mériadec de Rohan was appointed archbishop in 1769 and in 1771, after the sale of marshland between the cathedral and St Bruno (now the Meriadeck district), called upon the freshly arrived Parisian engineer, Joseph Etienne, to draw up the plans for his new residence. The Palais Rohan was to replace the medieval archiepiscopal palace built onto the northwest side of the Saint André Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-André) which was had fallen into disrepair.

Etienne’s project was composed of a main building on three floors set back in a large courtyard of honour. Unsatisfied with Etienne, the archbishop replaced him in 1776 by the town’s architect, Richard-François Bonfin, who completed the Palais Rohan in 1784 with the building contractor Poirier. The courtyard of honour is delimited by two single storey wings and sealed off from the Place Pey Berland by a large portico with eight archway openings. The monumental door is flanked by columned avant-corps and two alcoves each harbouring a 19 century stone statue sculpted by Prevot in 1869. The one on the left (going in) represents the Spirit of Trade and Industry and the one on the right the Spirit of Science and the Arts. The coat of arms of Bordeaux are displayed over the entrance and the length of the portico is crowned with balustrades in the same vein as the main building.

The façades

The façade of the main building is of the sober Louis XVI style, harmonious in its deceptive simplicity, with lightly projecting evenly laid pilasters supported from above the ground floor and rising up two floors. The rear façade which opens onto a garden is very similar with the exception of it having triangular fronton as opposed to the rounded one of the court of honour façade. The two wings that flank the rear garden were built around 1880 and now house the Museum of Fine Arts (Musée des Beaux Arts).

From revolutionary court to town hall of Bordeaux

Merely a couple of years after its completion the Palais Rohan became an administrative office in 1790 and housed the Revolutionary Court in the right wing from 1791. In 1800 the Palais Rohan accommodated the prefecture. One of its successors was Charles Delacroix, the father of the illustrious painter Eugene Delacroix. It is said that the son of the prefect discovered his vocation while watching Lacour restore his own works of art in 1804.

Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in the palace in 1808 and the archiepiscopal residence became an Imperial Palace. During the Restoration period the royal white flag flew over the fronton of the residence which was renamed Palais Royal. It wasn’t until 1st January 1836 that the mayor took up office in the Palais Rohan which since houses the Town Hall.