Old Town Hall

I’ll quickly draw your attention to the ancient porch on your right. It’s all that’s left of Laon’s former town hall. The building was constructed in 1736 to house the municipal services. Before that, it was the seat of the provost. The provost’s position was invented in the 11th century, when the kingdom was divided into what became known as provostships, that is, units of justice. In the Middle Ages, they pretty much did everything on behalf of the lord. They administered, judged, collected taxes and so on. But they quickly began to abuse their power, and were thus placed under the authority of a bailiff, a sort of public inspector. Their role evolved over time, and in the end, they managed nothing but justice. In short, the provost gave way to the town council, which would remain there until it outgrew the building and relocated in 1794. On the pediment above the archway, you can see two coats of arms: that of France and that of Laon. Just below the arch, on the wall to your right, one might notice a rusted iron bar next to two frames. These are actually the old measures used in Laon until 1789. Until the end of the 18th century, units of measurement varied widely from one city to another, making things rather complicated. The revolutionary government therefore took the initiative of standardizing units of measurement across France. In 1790, the Committee for Weights and Measures, led by French scientist Joseph-Louis Lagrange, proposed the creation of a uniform system, based on a one-and-only natural unit of measurement. And that’s how the famous metric system was born! It uses the meter to measure length, the kilogram to measure mass, and the liter to measure volume. However, it wasn’t until 1795 that the metric system was adopted throughout France. Thanks to its faultless logic and simplicity of use, it was soon adopted by many other countries around the world. Today, it’s used in most fields, yet the United Kingdom, the United States, Burma and Liberia still use what is known as the imperial system, or the English system, for measurements of length, weight and volume. Throwing in a bit of math here to show how certain revolutionary ideas can really shake things up worldwide. Now, let’s get back to our tour, shall we?