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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The town hall of Vichy was built between 1913 and 1925 to replace the old town hall, considered too small and poorly located in the thermal district. The project, financed by the sale of the land of the former town hall (506,000 francs), was interrupted by World War I before being completed in 1925 under the mandate of Mayor Louis Lasteyras. Inaugurated in 1928 in the presence of interior minister Albert Sarraut, the building is inspired by the style of the city hall of Paris, with decorated facades and a lookout culminating at 47 meters.

Designed by local architects Antoine Chanet and Jean Liogier, the city hall incorporates remarkable artistic elements, such as the stained glass windows of Francis Chigot in the honour staircase or painted and carved works (including a bust of Louis Lasteyras). The police station occupied the ground floor there until the 1960s, where in 1944 the resistant Marc Jure was arrested by the Gestapo. The building, a symbol of Vichy's municipal and thermal history, was classified as a historic monument in 1990 for its interior and exterior spaces.

Before 1913, the town hall occupied several places, including a town hall built under Napoleon III (1865–1910), destroyed to give way to the Ruhl Hotel. During the construction, municipal services were temporarily housed at the Café du Grand Chalet (1910–25), a building that is now extinct. The present city hall, with its festive hall, first floor gallery and woodwork, embodies the architectural eclecticism of the early twentieth century and the thermal radiance of Vichy.

The works exhibited, from donations or bequests (such as the Lambert donation in the 1920s), include paintings by Eugène Lomont, Antoine Vollon, or Léon Bonnat, as well as sculptures such as Le Devoir de René de Saint-Marceaux, offered for the inauguration. These artistic elements, combined with the political and social history of the building, bear witness to the urban and cultural evolution of Vichy.

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