Limoges town hall, built in 1883, partly destroyed in arson during protest

Troublemakers have just burned down the town hall of Limoges

At the end of a protest, demonstrators smashed the windows of the Limoges town hall, broke in and set the building on fire. The roof over the lower floors collapsed, along with the 43-metre clock tower, and about two thirds of the façade has been lost.

This is a genuine catastrophe for the local heritage. The Limoges town hall was one of the most cohesive examples of municipal architecture of the Third Republic. The architect Charles-Alfred Leclerc built it in 1879-1883 in the forms of the French Renaissance, taking as his model the Paris Hôtel de Ville, which in those very years was being restored after the fire of the Commune. The building was opened on 14 July 1883, on the national holiday, and was conceived as a manifesto of republican municipal self-government. Its chief treasure was the decoration tied to the history of the city: medallions by Gian Domenico Facchina with portraits of the great men of Limoges, and statues by Tony Noël, allegories of the goldsmith's craft and of enamelling. Since 1975 the building had held the status of a historic monument.

At the moment of the arson, municipal police officers, councillors and town hall staff were inside. According to the prefect, no one was hurt. Nearby, six police vehicles were burned or seriously damaged. One shudders to imagine what has become of the archives, the historic interiors and the furniture.

About 5,000 people took to the streets of Limoges, among them, in the prefect's words, several hundred radicalised and extremely aggressive individuals. Besides the town hall, shops in the centre were looted and the prefecture building was attacked.

Does none of this remind anyone of the burning of the Reichstag in 1933?