1995
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Marilyne Doutre, « Palais de justice et prisons dans la ville. L’œuvre de Ledru (1778-1861) en Auvergne », Histoire de l'art, ID : 10.3406/hista.1995.2674
The creation and installation of new administrative and judiciary services under the First Empire and the Restoration in France represented an opportunity for urban improvements and development in many provincial towns. Louis Charles François Ledru (1778-1861) was the departmental architect for the Puy-de-Dôme, and, as such, responsible for a series of projects for law courts, prisons and barracks for gendarmes in the towns of Thiers (1810 to 1825), Saint-Flour (1823 to 1850) and Ambert (in 1838). These different projects are so many variations on a theme, either proposing reuse and extension of existing buildings, the replacement of existing buildings and reconstruction on the same site, accompanied by a reorganisation of the surrounding urban space, or reconstruction on an entirely new site outside the town centre. In the three towns, the solutions put forward had to take into account many different factors ; attachment to the old seats of power, availability of building land, security requirements and, last of all, the creation of dynamics for urban growth.