Hôtel de ville

This guide to the Hotel de ville in Bordeaux centers on a stone staircase that rises three flights with no visible support, and the craft of stereotomy the eighteenth-century stonecutters used to build it. It follows archbishop Ferdinand Maximilien Meriadec de Rohan, who commissioned the palace in 1771, and the architects and craftsmen who shaped its rooms. Later occupants included Napoleon and Louis the Eighteenth before the building became Bordeaux's city hall. Stand at the base of the stairs to see how the steps interlock without a single beam.