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Key figures

Origin and history

The cantonal house of the Bastide, located in the eponymous district on the right bank of the Garonne in Bordeaux, was designed to meet the lack of public facilities in this sector which has been in full industrial expansion since the 19th century. The initial project, launched in 1903 under the chairmanship of Paul-Louis Lande, provided for a multi-purpose package: pretoire, police station, library, conference room and municipal offices. However, financial constraints delayed its realization, and it was only in 1913 that the architect Cyprien Alfred-Duprat was commissioned, with works finally carried out between 1924 and 1926.

The building, inaugurated in 1927 by Mayor Adrien Marquet, combines neo-Gothic influences, Art Nouveau (stone, brick and turquoise sandstone, broken lines) and Art Deco (inner decoration by Gentil & Bourdet and Edmond Tuffet). The festive hall, adorned with carved capitals representing birds, illustrates this stylistic syncretism. In the late 1980s, the building was converted into an annex town hall, before being listed as a historical monument in 1994 for its architectural and historical interest.

The Bastide district, annexed to Bordeaux in 1865, was developed around factories and the Orléans station, attracting a majority working population. The cantonal house then symbolized the municipal will to supervise this changing territory by setting up central public services. Its architecture, rare in Bordeaux by its eclecticism, also reflects the artistic transitions of the early twentieth century, between medieval heritage and geometric modernity.

Today, the monument remains a testament to the social and urban history of Bordeaux, as well as to the evolution of architectural styles between 1900 and 1930. Its inscription as a historical monument in 1994 preserved its interior and exterior decorations, including the ceramics of Gentil & Bourdet and the sculptures of Edmond Tuffet, characteristic of the French Art Deco.

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