Hôtel de Ville, Pantin

The Hôtel de Ville of Pantin stands out with its grand, symmetrical stone facade and a central clock tower that dominates the Place de la Pointe. Built in eighteen eighty-six, this town hall replaced an earlier building that had become far too small for the booming industrial population. During the Paris Commune of eighteen seventy-one, the original structure served as a site of intense local political debates. The architect, Adolphe-Auguste Vaudoyer, designed this current version to assert the permanence of the new French Republic.