The Hôtel de Ville of Lyon was built according to the designs of Simon Maupin from 1646 to 1655. Less than twenty years after completion, in 1674, a fire destroyed parts of the interior and of the principal facade. The architecture shown here is the work of Jules Hardouin Mansart who carried out the repair and reconstruction of the building in 1702. Only the equestrian statue had changed between that date and the 1860s: the original equestrian statue of Louis XIV was destroyed in the Revolution and replaced with plaster figures of Liberty and Equality, which were in turn replaced by the equestrian statue of Henri IV seen here. Baldus purposely chose a long exposure which would eliminate the human presence from the scene, and chose a point of view slightly right of center in order to show that the central tower was set back from the facade; in so doing, he also set the fountain off to the side of his composition so that it would not interrupt the central elements of the facade. [MD]
