Hôtel de Ville square

On the Hôtel de Ville square you'll find the town hall on one side and the church of Saint-Maurice on the other. That's a lot of churches for such a small town! Annecy is nicknamed "the city of 5 bell towers"! And they're all in different styles. This one is the oldest in the town. It's the former chapel of the Dominican convent, built in 1422. Since 1855, the town hall has been housed in this neoclassical Sardinian building. It's a good example of the typical architecture that developed in Savoy between 1815 and 1860, when the region belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia, ruled by the House of Savoy. The building housed not only the Sardinian Intendancy, but also the telegraph, library, museum and court. Today, high scaffolding along its walls is preventing you from admiring it in its entirety, indeed Annecy's town hall went up in flames in November 2019. The building's roof was destroyed, and it's been under construction ever since.