[7] The Salle des Fêtes (the ballroom) was created above the great galley and featured a fine fireplace, incorporating a copy of a painting by Frans Pourbus the Younger depicting Henry IV.

[9] The mayor, Jean Guiton, who was also a huguenot, organized an energetic resistance against Royalist forces during the siege of La Rochelle between 1627 and 1628 and the marble table with a chip made by his dagger, as he vowed to defend the city to the death, was also preserved there.

[10] After the Royalist victory at the end of the siege and the suppression of the Huguenots in 1628, Louis XIII confiscated the town hall and gave it to the new governor, Cardinal Richelieu.

[15][16] In May 1992, a Franco-German summit took place in the Salle des Fêtes, at which Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President François Mitterrand agreed to form a joint military force.

[22][23][24] A new Salle du Conseil (council chamber), designed by Philippe Villeneuve, was established in the attic area previously occupied by the archives.