Hôtel de ville de Saint-Denis, Municipal government building in Saint-Denis, France.
The Hôtel de ville de Saint-Denis is a neoclassical municipal building on Rue de Paris in Saint-Denis, Réunion. Its symmetrical 11-bay front has a central section of five bays with Doric columns below and Ionic columns above, and a balustraded parapet. A square clock tower with an octagonal belfry and dome rises at roof level.
The town council met at Place des Étuves, then in a private house on the Azéma site from 1838, before commissioning a dedicated hall on the west side of Rue de Paris. The foundation stone was laid in 1846, but money ran short and work advanced slowly. Governor Émile Darricau opened the neoclassical building, designed by Pierre Georges Grenard, on 21 April 1860. It was listed as a monument historique in 1975.
The first-floor Grand Salle des Fêtes runs across the whole front of the building and served as the town's ballroom. On 2 December 1868 a crowd gathered outside to demand the separation of church and state and universal suffrage for councillors; troops fired on it, killing five and wounding 22, and three more died later. The governor declared a state of emergency the next day.
The town hall stands on the west side of Rue de Paris, its main frontage of eleven bays facing the street. The war memorial column with Winged Victory is on the street corner just to the northeast. It is a working municipal building, so the Grand Salle des Fêtes and offices are not freely open; visitors see the facade and fence from the pavement.
The tower's clock stage and octagonal belfry sit above a dome, but the building's most overlooked feature is its setting: the 1868 demonstration in front of it ended in gunfire, with five killed and 22 wounded. A column topped by Winged Victory, designed by Auguste Benard, stands at the northeast street corner and was unveiled on 23 December 1923.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,813 contributors worldwide.