Built in 1552 and once described by the famous essayist Montaigne as a "magnificent gilded palace", the Hôtel de Ville is a masterpiece of Rhenish Renaissance architecture that once symbolised the mini republic´s attachment to its liberties. The frescoes illustrate the virtues extolled by the reformed religion as well as the coats-of-arms of the Swiss cantons to which Mulhouse was allied. Upon the right-hand gable hangs the Klapperstein, or "rattle stone", which malicious people were forced to wear as punishment.