Town Hall and Theatre of Bayonne, Town hall and theatre on Place de la Liberté, Bayonne, France

The Town Hall and Theatre of Bayonne is a symmetrical neoclassical building on Place de la Liberté that combines city government offices with a performance space. Its thirteen bays frame a central section with tall arches and square columns, creating a formal presence on the square.

A first theatre with 500 seats stood on the site in 1720; it was demolished in 1835. The city borrowed 500,000 francs and gave Nicolas Vionnois the project: customs in the Adour wing, theatre in the centre, town hall along rue Bernède. The first stone was laid on 1 May 1837, and the theatre opened on 15 January 1842 with Halévy's La Juive.

The theatre is named after Michel Portal, a Bayonne-born clarinettist and composer of Basque descent, not a 19th-century figure. Its 1,200-seat hall opened on 15 January 1842 with Halévy and Scribe's La Juive; Franz Liszt played recitals there on 14 and 18 October 1844, and a commemorative plaque marks this at the artists' entrance.

The building sits on Place de la Liberté in central Bayonne and is easily accessible on foot. Visitors can admire the exterior architecture at any time, while performances and official events take place throughout the year.

The building was divided into three parts: the customs service in the wing along the Adour, the theatre in the central wing and the town hall in the wing along rue Bernède. A fire in the municipal archives on the night of 31 December 1889 ravaged the east wing and damaged part of the theatre roof, while the customs wing survived.