Hôtel de Ville d'Aix-en-Provence (Town Hall), Aix-en-Provence

The Hotel de Ville, or Town Hall, is one of the most interesting historic locations in Aix-en-Provence, situated on the eponymous Town Hall Square (Place de l'Hotel-de-Ville). Renowned for its Italianate façade, carved wood front door, and inner courtyard, the current Town Hall is a rebuild of the original structure that once stood on the site until the middle of the 14th century.

The new Town Hall, comprising two levels and a ground floor, was built between 1655 and 1678 by the architect Pierre Pavillon assisted by the sculptors Jean-Claude Rambot and Jacques Fosse.

The Baroque-style façade, once richly decorated, was largely stripped of its ornamentation during the French Revolution of 1789. The resulting decorum features a handful of elements. Each floor, consisting of five windows, is separated by a frieze and is delimited by an entablature decorated with fruit garlands. The whole structure is flanked by two large buttresses that give it a rather monumental look. The ground floor frieze is decorated with triglyphs and rosettes, while that on the second floor is decorated with foliage snaking in opposite directions.

Inside the Salle des Etats de Provence, on the first floor, are the two series of paintings, including portraits of the counts of Provence and the kings of France on the one hand, and on the other, those illustrating the history of Aix and Provence.

The Town Hall building is also notable for the adjoining Clock Tower, built in 1510, which holds an astronomical clock dating from 1661. The base of the tower reveals ancient blocks of white limestone that probably originated from the former Roman gate of the city. Crowning the structure is a 16th-century wrought-iron cage with a bell. During medieval times, this bell was used to announce an exercise of Seigneurial rights, which obliged peasants to provide the landowner with seigneurial dues, paid either in cash, produce, or labor.

It is in this building the famous French painter, Paul Cézanne, married the love of his life, Marie-Hortense Fiquet, in 1886. Fiquet appeared in 27 of Paul Cézanne paintings.

The Town Hall of Aix-en-Provence was classified as a historical monument in 1995.