Namur Town Hall: from place d'Armes to the Hôtel Kégeljan
In Namur, the town hall's story moves from a square to a street: a building lost in 1914, an artist's home becoming a civic house and a newer administrative complex.
Understanding Namur Town Hall requires a short change of location. The old postcard here shows the former building on place d'Armes, lost during the First World War. Contemporary photographs show the rue de Fer complex. These are not two states of one façade, but two chapters of municipal history.
An administration changes address
The old town hall burnt in August 1914. After the war, the City bought the Kégeljan-Godin couple's rue de Fer home in 1919. The Walloon heritage entry specifies that Henri Beyaert built it between 1878 and 1880 in the spirit of Flemish neo-Renaissance. The passage from private residence to municipal power shows how a city reuses buildings after a historical rupture.
A façade rewarding curiosity
At 42 rue de Fer, rigorous symmetry orders abundant decoration: balconies, balusters, brackets, shells and small obelisks. This eclecticism combines regular composition with varied ornament, characteristic of a late-19th-century bourgeois residence. Bombed in 1944 and rebuilt in 1947, the Hôtel Kégeljan itself endured another ordeal. Administrative expansion begun in the 1980s after municipal mergers explains the newer complex nearby: a city's functions do not always fit within inherited walls.
The painter who recreated Namur's memory
Franz Kegeljan is more than a former owner's name. Passionate about his city's history, he donated twenty paintings of its past in 1900. Held in the former town hall, they were destroyed in 1914. As the Citadel of Namur recounts, he returned to his drawings and studies to rebuild and enrich this painted memory, culminating in another donation of fifty canvases in 1921. The detail changes the view: behind the façade is an artist's determination not to let a city's images disappear.
A short route between presence and absence
Rue de Fer and place d'Armes belong to distinct chapters, located on the official central map. The 1912 postcard preserves a vanished building's image; the Kégeljan residence witnesses the post-war solution. Municipal power's relocation thus explains an absence in the landscape as much as a still-visible monument.
Planning the visit
Namur station allows an arrival on foot in the centre. Check your route and access with the tourist office or City before trying to enter. A town hall remains a workplace: reception for administrative business does not guarantee access to offices, reception rooms or paintings. Enjoy the exterior walk first, then enquire about any scheduled heritage visits or openings.
Photos and credits
Photo 1 — Hôtel Kégeljan, historic part of Namur Town Hall on rue de Fer, photographed on 5 September 2005. Philippe SAMPONT · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Source.
Photo 2 — Maison des citoyens, the more recent administrative part of Namur Town Hall, photographed in June 2022. Grentidez · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source.
Photo 3 — Archive: Namur's FORMER town hall on place d'Armes, postcard sent on 25 November 1912; this building was destroyed in 1914 and is not the Hôtel Kégeljan. Unidentified author; original card digitised by Jmh2o · Public domain (PD-anon-70-EU) · Source.
