Our Big Move To France

Today I went on a quest to find the statues of Lydéric and Phinaert that are carved on a corner of the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) of Lille.

This building was started in 1924, a few years after the original City Hall burned down in 1916. After WWI ended, the city decided to build a new city hall as a symbol of new beginnings. The soaring belfry was added in 1929.

During WWII, the partially built hall was seized by the Germans and used as their local headquarters until the town was liberated in 1944. After the war there was little money to complete the building, so only two of the three wings were completed.

Finally in 1992 the entire design was realized. The belfry is a Flemish traditional structure, and it is the tallest of the numerous UNESCO designated belfries around French Flanders and Belgium.

The statues of Lydéric and Phinaert are actually directly carved concrete, by the French sculptor Carlo Sarrabezolles (1888-1971) He constructed the Giants in 1929, all the more poignant because he had been held prisoner in Germany during WWI, and not knowing that this building would soon be occupied.

There is a square in Paris that bears his name.