Capitole Building that Oversees the City

Dec. 22, 2010 - PRLog -- In the heart of Toulouse is an important building which you can say the city needs, it is the Capitole de Toulouse.  The capitole is the town hall of the city and also the house of the mayor of Toulouse
It gets its name Capitole from the fact that it refers to Roman Capitol and also capitullum which was the chapter of the governing magistrates.  It also is the place which has the Hotel de Ville, as well as that though it is home to the city's highly rated opera company, where the best opera performances are held here.

The construction of the building wasn't approved until 1190 in order to establish the seat of Municipal power all before the 12th century as there were no fixed assemblies that could be gathered from the church.  The reception rooms of the building are open to the public but is also used for official functions and weddings.  Some of the interior in the building dates back as early to the 16th century, but today's façade which is about 135 meters long and was built with pink bricks that give it a Neoclassical style, it dates back to 1750 and was built by the plans of Guillaume Cammas.  There are eight columns in the façade made out of marble, they are there because they are meant to represent the original eight capitols.  There are also two sculptures here made to represent Isaure Clemace and Palla.  The Façade was built in order to distract people from the other buildings that dated as far as the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.  The Façade overlooks the arcaded square, the place du Capitole which is 2 hectares big.  This square was constructed in the middle of the 19th century.

It wasn't until 1877 that Eugene Viollet-le-Duc built a bell tower that represents the normal style of northern France.  The bell tower use to be called the Tour des Archives.  The dungeon which has acted as the municipal archives now acts as the tourist office.  Medieval buildings in the surrounding areas were razed.  The only buildings that survived were the the Henri IV courtyard and the gate which came from medieval times.  This courtyard has history to as this was the place where the Duke de Montmorency was decapitated after his rebellion against Cardinal Richelieu.

You'll be able top visit the Capitole from 9am to 6pm, there is also the Salle des Illustres which houses paintings and portraits.  It has some interesting exhibitions as well, for example there is a exhibition that has a portrait of La Belle Paule, who was a beautiful girl that who had captured the hearts of many particularly King François 1 and was ordered by decree of the town to appear twice a day on her balcony in the Rue du Languedoc in order to prevent rioting among her admirers.  This also has a registry office which means that you can get married here.

Many people like to visit this town hall because it is a building that just shows the culture that Toulouse has.  Now I know people usually use Midi-Pyrénées vacation rentals for other purposes but this is a place which won't make you regret having a different look at the region.













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