The Palais Rohan is the name of the Hôtel de Ville, or City Hall, of Bordeaux. In 1771, the new Archbishop of Bordeaux, Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec, prince of Rohan, decided to rebuilt the old medieval archbishopric, not enough worthy of its rank.
Designed by the architect Richard-François Bonfin, it took 13 years to build and was completed in 1784. It is a hotel particulier, entre cour et jardin (between Courtyard and Garden), and features an austere Louis XVI-style façade. Its staircase is considered a masterpiece of stone masonry.
After the French Revolution, the building housed in 1791 the Gironde department prefecture before becoming the Bordeaux Town Hall in 1835.
Designed in 1889, the municipal council room is characteristic of official architecture during the Third Republic.
The garden, initially designed in the French formal style, now takes on an English landscape style. Since 1880, it has been bordered by two wings that house the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.