Hôtel de Ville

The building in front of you is the Hotel de Ville, which serves as the seat of the Paris city government. Despite the name, which often confuses travelers, it is not a hotel; the French term refers specifically to a city hall. Its history on this site dates back to 1357, when municipal offices were first established here in a private merchant's house. Over the centuries, it grew into a grand center of civic power, though the structure you see today is a late nineteenth-century reconstruction that rose from the ashes of a devastating fire.