Hôtel de Ville, Blagnac

The Hôtel de Ville (French pronunciation: [otɛl də vil], City Hall) is a municipal building in Blagnac, Haute-Garonne, in southwestern France, standing on Place des Arts.

Under the ancien régime the consuls met in a two-storey building, which was also used as a school, in the old part of town, close to the Church of Saint-Pierre.^[1] In August 1777, the consuls acquired part of a house at No. 12 Rue du Vieux Blagnac for 1,600 French livre.^[2] Following the French Revolution, this building became the Maison Commune: there was a butcher's shop and a village lock-up on the ground floor and a combined courtroom and council chamber on the first floor. Significant repairs were carried out in November 1818 and, after a fire caused damage in October 1836,^[3][4] the building was restored by a local carpenter, Bernard Lartet, in 1837.^[5]

In 1865, after the Maison Commune became dilapidated, the council decided to commission a new combined town hall and school.^[6] The site they selected was on Rue de l'Oratoire (now Rue Lavigne).^[7] The new building was designed by a local architect, Sieur Delor, in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone by Sieur Galinié at a cost of FFr 15,374 and was officially accepted by the mayor, Prosper Ferradou, in July 1871.^[8][9] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto the street. The central section of three bays was two storeys high, while the wings of three bays each were single-storey. The central bay featured a square headed doorway on the ground door, a French door with an iron railing on the first floor, and a parapet with an oculus and a tall pediment above. The other bays were fenestrated by casement windows.^[10]

In the mid-1960s, following significant population growth, the council led by the mayor, Jean-Louis Puig, decided to commission a modern town hall. The site they selected was on the corner of Rue Prosper Ferradou and what is now Place Jean-Louis Puig. The building was designed by a local architect, René Viguier, in the modern style, built in concrete and glass by a contractor, Constant Bramardi, at a cost of FFr 2 million and completed in 1978. The design involved a two-storey structure in two sections, with the right-hand section slightly projected forward.^[5]

In the early 1990s, the council decided to extend the town hall and to add an extra floor to it. The work was undertaken by a contractor, Bisseuil, to a design by the architectural firm, G. P. A., and was completed in summer 1992. As a result of the modifications, the building became a three-storey structure with the end sections projected forward. The central section and the left-hand end section were faced with alternating bands of white panels and casement windows, while the right-hand section was fully faced in white panels.^[11] Internally, the principal room was the Salle du Conseil (council chamber).^[12]

Between 2018 and 2019, the building was further extended to the rear at a cost of €17 million to allow all council services to be co-located in one building.^[13] In January 2021, a mural depicting Marianne by the artist, Méro Raja, was installed on the right-hand end section of the building.^[14] It was replaced by a mural also depicting Marianne but by the artist, Korail, in November 2023.^[15]

• Lavigne, Bertrand (1875). Histoire de Blagnac (PDF). L. Capdeville.
• Ricard, Germaine (1 November 1996). Blagnac, questions d'histoire: Revue d'Histoire Locale – Semestriel – No. 12 (PDF). l'Association pour l'Etude et la Présentation de l'Histoire de la Résistance et de Blagnac. ISSN 1169-4408.