When you walk along Rue de Rivoli, suddenly a beautiful palace appears with a big square where you can find rotating art installations, an ice skating rink (in winter), and a carousel that’s always there. This is Paris’s city hall building, called the Hôtel de Ville. One thing worth knowing: Paris has 20 arrondissements, which you can read about in the article Map of Paris, and each arrondissement has its own town hall. The Paris city hall is a kind of “super city hall” that handles strategic matters relevant to the whole city rather than to any one particular arrondissement.
And one more thing worth knowing. For many travelers, the word “hôtel” means hotel, and I’ve heard from quite a few people who wanted to know how much a night at the Hôtel de Ville would cost (feel free to ask Robespierre (1758-1794), who spent his last night there with a bullet in his jaw, “on the house”). This is a common mistake, because the word hotel as we use it today is actually short for hôtel de tourisme, or “tourism house.”
So the word hôtel actually means “house,” not “hotel,” which is why there are so many mansions in the Marais called “Hôtel de…”. That’s why “Hôtel de Ville” means “house of the city,” or city hall. Now that we understand that and have admired the grand building, another question comes up. Why is the building so grand? Couldn’t they have settled for some smaller, more functional office building?
I could give you the answer in the next paragraph. Instead, let me take the long way around and bring you on a journey across centuries of Paris’s history, where you’ll discover plenty of fascinating stories about the Hôtel de Ville’s past (and, of course, in the end, the answer to the question I just asked).
The history of the Hôtel de Ville
Not everyone knows this, but Paris was once a port city that grew rich from trade with other towns in France. Goods were transported along the Seine, and the guild responsible for that trade was called the Guild of Water Merchants (and no, they didn’t walk the streets selling water). During the Middle Ages, this guild became the most powerful in Paris thanks to its wealth, and as its business grew, it needed a building where it could manage its affairs.
At the city’s main square, they burned books or people (depending on the day)
The spot chosen was a square near the riverbank, where wheat and other goods arriving via the Seine were unloaded. The square was named after that riverbank (grève is French for riverbank, so the square was called Place de Grève). Since there was plenty of work unloading and loading cargo, many unemployed people would gather there looking for work.
Amusingly, over the years the square’s name became synonymous with going on strike (faire une grève means “to strike” in French), probably because of the crowds of unemployed laborers who used to gather there. During the 20th century, striking became an inseparable part of French culture, a kind of national sport. If you want to read more about this, check out the article Strikes in Paris.
When goods weren’t being unloaded there, the square was the favorite spot for executions and book burnings (Louis IX (Saint Louis, r. 1226-1270) ordered the Talmud burned there in 1242). Since the square was in the center of the city, hangings weren’t carried out there; that was reserved for Montfaucon, outside the city walls, where the bodies of criminals could hang for weeks. But don’t worry, the French mind came up with plenty of other inventive ways to carry out executions.
If you were a noble, you were lucky: you “got” a quick death by beheading (as happened to the Marquise de Brinvilliers (1630-1676), who was executed after poisoning quite a few members of her own family). But if your bad luck had you accused of witchcraft or heresy, you’d “get” to be burned alive.
But the unluckiest of all were those accused of harming the king. Their punishment was to be tied to four horses, each pulling in a different direction, tearing the criminal’s arms and legs apart while still alive (and beforehand, they made sure to torture him and pour molten lead into his wounds). And if you thought such a barbaric execution was common only in the Middle Ages, you’d be surprised to hear that Robert-François Damiens (1715-1757), a mentally ill servant who tried to stab Louis XV (r. 1715-1774) with a fruit-peeling knife in 1757, received the very same treatment.
With a record like that, it’s no surprise that by the end of the 18th century, Place de Grève “earned” the distinction of hosting the first execution by guillotine. The victim was a simple thief named “La Pelletier,” beheaded there on April 25, 1792. Executions for criminal offenses continued at this square until the 1830s, when King Louis-Philippe moved the guillotine to the 13th arrondissement.
Executions for “ideological” crimes, on the other hand, mostly took place at Place de la Concorde (Louis XVI (r. 1774-1792), Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), Georges Danton (1759-1794), and others), the Bastille, and Nation (though there were exceptions: for example, the head of the revolutionary public prosecutor, Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville (1746-1795), was beheaded right at the city hall square).
Tossed but Never Sunk
Executions are interesting, but we’re here to talk about the history of the Hôtel de Ville. So let’s go back to the Guild of Water Merchants. As mentioned, they set up offices and a commercial court next to Place de Grève in a building called the House of Pillars (because… it stood on wooden pillars. Not every name has an interesting story, unfortunately).
As I wrote at the start of this article, the Guild of Water Merchants was the most important guild in the city. So in 1357, this building became Paris’s first city hall, and the guild’s emblem became the city’s emblem.
Look at the emblem you see here. In the middle, you can see the ship sailing on the river. That’s the merchants’ ship sailing on the Seine. Below it is the Latin motto of the city of Paris, also taken from the merchants’ guild, meaning “tossed by the waves but never sinks.” And indeed, if we go through the whole history of Paris, we’ll find this motto fits the city like a glove (bought at some boutique on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré). Honestly, I think quite a few other countries could adopt it too…
And finally, notice the colors of the flag: red and blue. These make up two-thirds of today’s Francen flag, which was set during the French Revolution (the white in the middle is the color of the French royal house, and it stayed there long after the monarchy itself had ceased to exist).
Étienne Marcel, Paris’s Legendary Mayor
The man who turned the head of the Paris merchants’ guild into a de facto mayor was Étienne Marcel (1302-1358), whose statue stands in the city hall garden and after whom a street and a metro station in Paris are named. Who was this man who earned so much fame, both in his lifetime and after his death?
Étienne was born into an old, wealthy merchant family in Paris (his mother was a descendant of the Barbou family, one of the most powerful and wealthiest families in medieval Paris). So it’s no surprise that Étienne climbed the political ladder until, in 1354, he became head of the merchants’ guild (provost of the merchants, in French prévôt des marchands).
In 1356, King Jean II (r. 1350-1364) was captured by the English, and France, impoverished by a string of defeats in the Hundred Years’ War, had to raise money to pay his ransom. During this time, Étienne Marcel became a fierce opponent of the dauphin (crown prince), Charles, Duke of Normandy, and relations between the monarchy and Paris’s leaders grew increasingly strained.
About two years later, the conflict reached its peak when Étienne Marcel led a mob of Parisians to storm the king’s palace, then located on the Île de la Cité (where the courthouse and the Conciergerie palace stand today). The result was a horrific massacre, in which the marshals of Normandy and Champagne were killed. The dauphin Charles managed to flee, and once he became King Charles V (r. 1364-1380), he decided never to return to that palace, where he no longer felt safe, and moved instead to the Marais, where he built the Hôtel Saint-Pol, which unfortunately no longer exists.
Étienne Marcel reached the peak of his career, but, swollen with pride and self-importance, he let himself go too far. He believed that by joining forces with the King of Navarre, who was then at war with the King of France, he could turn Paris into a kind of autonomous state. But on July 31, 1358, Étienne Marcel made a fatal mistake and tried to open Paris’s gates to that king’s forces. When the people of Paris heard about it, they killed Étienne Marcel and his supporters, while the dauphin, who had been forced to flee the city, returned to Paris.
Even so, Étienne Marcel left behind an important legacy, which is why he earned a statue facing the city hall. First, he turned the head of Paris’s city government into an important political figure, and turned Paris into France’s most important city. Second, Étienne Marcel created a legacy of Parisian uprisings roughly once a century, a legacy that continues to this day. Don’t believe it? Look at what’s happened since his time:
- 15th century: Paris revolts against the king of France and opens its gates to the Burgundians and the English
- 16th century: during the Wars of Religion, Paris ousts King Henri III (r. 1574-1589) and submits to the Catholic League.
- 17th century: the Fronde revolt against Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661) and Anne of Austria (1601-1666).
- 18th century: the French Revolution, which began in Paris.
- 19th century: the revolutions of 1830, 1848, and the Paris Commune of 1871.
- 20th century: the student uprising of May 1968.
- 21st century: the yellow vests and the immigrant unrest in Paris and its suburbs.
In short, ever since Étienne Marcel, Paris has definitely been a city you don’t want to mess with, and if there’s one song that captures that better than any other, it’s this one by Mireille Mathieu (born 1946):
The political turmoil that Paris generated throughout its history meant that from the 19th century until the mid-20th century, Paris had no elected mayor of its own; instead it was run by a prefect appointed by the emperor or the president. That’s why Baron Haussmann (1809-1891), who had more influence than anyone else on the city’s appearance through his rebuilding of Paris, never held the title of mayor of Paris, but rather that of prefect of the Seine (if you want to read more about him and the rebuilding of Paris, I recommend the article Paris in the Belle Époque (1853-1914)).
Paris Is Worth a Palace
It looks like we’ve strayed a bit from the topic we gathered here for, so let me go back a little in time and talk about the city hall building itself.
Paris’s first city hall building, built by Étienne Marcel, was called, as mentioned, the “House of Pillars,” and combined a municipal administration with a commercial court that heard trade-related disputes in Paris.
During the 16th century, the House of Pillars fell into such disrepair that it was decided to tear it down completely and build a Renaissance-style palace instead. The new building was designed by the architect Bocador and funded by King Francis I (r. 1515-1547), who hoped the gift would win him the favor of Paris’s citizens. Since it was a very expensive structure, it took quite a while to complete, and it only fully opened to the public during the reign of Louis XIII (r. 1610-1643).
As you can see in the image above, this building resembles the one we see today, even though it’s not actually the same building. Francis I’s Hôtel de Ville managed to survive nearly all the revolutions that swept through Paris, which I mentioned earlier. But in 1871, it was burned down by the Paris Commune (you can read the story of the fire in the article When Paris Almost Burned Down).
After the fall of the Commune, and of the Second Empire, which had collapsed a little more than six months earlier, the Third Republic was established. In its early years, the Republic lacked public and international legitimacy, since a large part of France’s population were monarchists, as were quite a few European countries.
Since the Hôtel de Ville was a republican symbol, it was decided to rebuild it in a style similar to the previous one, but at the same time to enlarge and embellish it in order to create a kind of republican Palace of Versailles. The building was entirely rebuilt between 1874 and 1882 by the architects Théodore Ballu (1817-1885) and Édouard Deperthes (1833-1898).
The interior design wasn’t neglected either; some of the most famous artists of the time were brought in for the task, such as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) and Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). The result was nothing short of spectacular. Step inside, and you’ll find lavish rooms, even a hall of mirrors that rivals the one at Versailles. Indeed, to paraphrase Henri IV (r. 1589-1610)’s famous line “Paris is worth a Mass,” Paris is certainly worth a palace like this one!
Today, the Hôtel de Ville continues to serve as the building of Paris’s “super city hall,” and its square is no longer used for executions, but for ice skating (in winter) or rotating exhibitions (the rest of the year). It’s a wonderful, truly photogenic spot, and the facade, massive as it is, is never boring to look at. It stretches 183 meters and features statues of quite a few of France’s greatest figures. I’d love to hold a contest with fellow Francophiles in Paris someday, to see how many statues each of us can identify.
All of this makes the Hôtel de Ville a must-visit when you’re in the City of Light. And now that I’ve (hopefully) made you want to visit, you’ll probably want some practical information about the place.
Hôtel de Ville: useful information
How do you get to the Hôtel de Ville?
You can get there by metro, lines 1 or 11 (Hôtel de Ville station). You can also get there by bus lines 70 and 72.
Visiting the Hôtel de Ville
The Hôtel de Ville is beautiful from the outside, but it’s definitely worth going inside too and enjoying the beauty of its halls. And here I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. The good news is that the tour of the Hôtel de Ville is completely free. The bad news is that you need to book the visit in advance. How far in advance? The recommendation is two months ahead (although there have been cases where people managed to get in with shorter notice).
How do you book a visit to the Hôtel de Ville?
To book a visit to the Hôtel de Ville, you need to call +33 (0)1 42 76 54 04.
Important: as far as I know, these tours are currently suspended because of the situation with COVID in France, but if you somehow manage to visit Paris during this time, it’s definitely worth calling and trying.
The Hôtel de Ville garden
The Hôtel de Ville garden is Paris’s city hall’s open public garden. It’s a very quiet and fairly intimate spot. This small, beautifully maintained, and little-known garden sits right along the southern side of the city hall building, the side closest to the river, and it’s meant only for non-smokers…
This garden used to belong to the mayor of Paris, and the general public wasn’t allowed to visit. But in recent years, that’s changed, and the garden has opened to the public. So next time you’re in Paris, feel free to stop by this relatively unknown garden, enjoy the greenery, and of course take a close look at the statue of Étienne Marcel we talked about earlier.
Opening hours:
- In winter, the place is open until 17:00.
- In spring, it’s open until 18:00.
- In summer, the park is open until 20:30.
Where to stay near the Hôtel de Ville (hotels and vacation apartments)
The Hôtel de Ville sits right in the heart of Paris. On one side, it’s very close to the Marais, the Centre Pompidou, and the Louvre Museum. On the other side, it’s very close to the Île de la Cité and Notre-Dame Cathedral, which makes it easy to hop over to the Latin Quarter, on the Left Bank of the Seine.
So I highly recommend staying on the streets near the Hôtel de Ville, whether in the Marais (mainly the 4th arrondissement) or in the 1st arrondissement. If you’re looking for recommended hotels and great vacation apartments in these neighborhoods, you can find them here:
- Hotels in Paris: recommended hotels in every arrondissement and for every budget
- Vacation rentals in Paris: recommendations for excellent vacation apartments
Looking for more to see?
Finished enjoying the beauty of the Hôtel de Ville, and you’re in the area looking for more to see? Here are two more articles that can really help:
- Paris attractions: an article with information about various attractions in every arrondissement (in your case, if you’re exploring near the Hôtel de Ville, look for attractions in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th arrondissements).
- Walking itineraries in Paris: if you love exploring Paris on foot, you’ll be happy to find a long list of routes here suited to every interest.
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