Auray Town Hall

You’re standing in front of Auray’s town hall. With its pale, orderly facade and small central bell tower, the building has all the formality you would expect from the seat of local government. But to understand what it represents, we need to go back to a time when not all towns enjoyed the same status.

Under the Ancien Régime, certain towns were granted special rights by the duke or the king, known as privileges. Auray received a number of these over the centuries and, most importantly, became the seat of a royal sénéchaussée in the 16th century. Behind that rather intimidating word was simply a court responsible for administering justice in the king’s name.

And not just for the people of Auray: its jurisdiction extended over around twenty surrounding parishes. So if you needed to settle certain legal matters, challenge a decision, or appeal a judgment, this was the place to come. In its own way, Auray became a small judicial and administrative capital.

The town hall you see today was built much later, at the end of the 18th century. Its symmetry, large windows, and bell tower give it an elegant appearance, while still making it clear that important decisions were made here. And justice was never far away: the town hall once stood directly beside the old wooden market halls, with the courtroom of the sénéchaussée located above them.

Local government, justice, and commerce were all gathered almost under the same roof! As for the market halls, they have a story of their own… one we’ll come back to a little later, and it might just make you hungry.