Hôtel de Ville

This guide to the Hotel de Ville in Paris opens on the night of July 27, 1794, when Robespierre, the architect of the Reign of Terror, fled to Paris's city hall and barricaded himself inside as soldiers loyal to the National Convention surrounded the building. It traces the square outside, once the city's execution ground for centuries, and the fire that gutted the building in 1871. Stand at the facade rebuilt stone by stone afterward, nearly identical to what burned.