Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Town Hall of Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, also called Hotel Cipher, is a Renaissance house marked by a richly carved facade. Its stone corbels, cribs on windows and plant/animal motifs reflect the art of the late 15th or early 16th century. The building, partially reconstructed (like the wood section on the 3rd floor), retains remains of an old passage to the collegiate, originally covered by a wooden structure. Its decor, including oak stems and acorns, could evoke the weapons of a local provost, according to historian Paul Foulquier-Lavergne.

Built on the ruins of a Roman sanctuary, the building was destroyed by fire and rebuilt five years later. He served successively as a municipal annex, the Hospital of the Great Burns during the Second World War, and was abandoned a decade before being symbolically redeemed (for a franc) by the municipality. Since 1880, it has housed the town hall until 2020, while now hosting a memorial for the wounded in its western wing. Its legal status, both concession and administration, has fuelled tensions between the town hall and the Administrative Court.

Ranked a historic monument in 1897, the Town Hall illustrates the transformation of a medieval heritage into a public building. Its posterior elevations, in bellows, contrast with the facade worked on street, while old photographs attest to architectural changes (such as the corbellations added during restorations). The quarter of the round of the north corner and a preserved arc recall an extinct structure, linked to the former neighbouring collegiate. Its history also reflects the preservation stakes and adaptive uses of rural monuments in Occitanie.

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