Place du Capitole, Toulouse, France.

© James March / Lonely Planet

Capitole

Toulouse


On the eastern side of place du Capitole (the main square) is the 128m-long façade of the Capitole, Toulouse's city hall. This neoclassical masterpiece, in Toulouse's characteristic pink brick and buttressed with gleaming white columns, was built in the early 1750s, but this spot was a seat of municipal power for 500 years prior. The interior is worth a look for its spectacular late-19th-century Salle des Illustres (Hall of the Illustrious), decorated by artists including post-impressionist Henri Martin.