The Palais Rohan was built as the residence of the Archbishop of Bordeaux in the 1770s, on the same grand scale as everything else in this district. After the Revolution it became the city hall — a role it still serves today — with the Musée des Beaux-Arts housed in the wings behind it. The building faces Place Pey-Berland, the main civic square.
The exterior courtyard is usually accessible and worth a look. The interior reception rooms can be seen on guided tours when not in official use. The building represents the full flowering of French neoclassical civic architecture in the provinces — as grand as anything in Paris, and better preserved than most.