The Hôtel de Ville faces the Place Jean Jaurès on the broad axis of Rue Nationale and is one of the most theatrical buildings in Tours. Built between 1896 and 1904 by Victor Laloux in heavy Beaux-Arts style, it is an enormous symmetrical pile of stone with allegorical statuary, a grand staircase, and a clock tower behind a deep portico.
The square in front, with its fountains and equestrian statue of Joan of Arc passing through, is one of the city's main meeting places. Tours's most extravagant Christmas tree goes up here every December. Best appreciated from the terrace of one of the cafés opposite, where you can take in both the city hall and the equally grand railway station next to it in one sweep.