The Palais Rohan is the name of the Hôtel de Ville, or City Hall, of Bordeaux. In 1771, the new Archbishop of Bordeaux, Ferdinand Maximilien Mériadec, prince of Rohan, decided to rebuilt the old medieval archbishopric, not enough worthy of its rank.
Designed by the architect Richard-François Bonfin, it took 13 years to build and was completed in 1784. It is a hotel particulier, entre cour et jardin (between Courtyard and Garden), and features an austere Louis XVI-style façade. Its staircase is considered a masterpiece of stone masonry.
After the French Revolution, the building housed in 1791 the Gironde department prefecture before becoming the Bordeaux Town Hall in 1835.
Designed in 1889, the municipal council room is characteristic of official architecture during the Third Republic.
The garden, initially designed in the French formal style, now takes on an English landscape style. Since 1880, it has been bordered by two wings that house the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.