Hôtel de Ville de Lyon

The Hôtel de Ville de Lyon is the seat of the city's municipal government and faces Place des Terreaux in the 1st arrondissement, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. The building was constructed between 1646 and 1672 to designs by Simon Maupin, replacing an earlier town hall that had become too small for the city's consular administration. Lyon was then one of the wealthiest cities in the kingdom, with its trade fairs, silk industry and banking, and the new building was meant to display that standing. A fire in 1674 destroyed much of the interior and roof, and the building was rebuilt under Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte, who gave the façade its present Baroque character. The central pavilion carries a large bronze relief of Henri IV on horseback, a replacement of an earlier one lost in the Revolution, and a tall clock tower, the belfry, rises above the roof. The courtyard and monumental staircase are decorated in the grand style of the late 17th century, and the interior includes ceremonial halls with painted ceilings and gilded decoration, such as the Salon d'Honneur. During the Second World War the building suffered during bombings, and it has since been restored. In front lies Place des Terreaux, with the monumental fountain by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, installed in 1892, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, housed in a former abbey, at its side. Interior access is limited to occasional guided visits and the European Heritage Days in September, so most visitors view the façade from the square. The building lies within the UNESCO-listed Historic Site of Lyon. At night the façade is illuminated, and during the Fête des Lumières in December it becomes a surface for light projections.