Hôtel de préfecture des Deux-Sèvres

The building, built from 1828 to 1830 in the neoclassical style by the departmental architect Segrétain, replaces an old botanical garden.
This polygonal garden included a cooler, a fruit plantation, an orange garden, hot baths and a swimming school on the banks of the river Sèvre.
Two nymph sculptures on the triangular pediment of the building symbolize the Sèvre Niortaise and Nantes, two rivers taking their source in the department. Between the two women, is represented Marianne, almost erased.

Empire Baron Etienne Dupin, husband of the widow of Danton, was one of the youngest prefects of France at the age of 33 and the first of the Deux-Sèvres in 1800. He founded an educational institution for science and the arts, an agricultural society and a charitable office to abolish begging, refocuses the entire department...