Place Delille and Place Salford both form entrances to the city, one at the road from Montferrand and the other for the station neighbourhood. Two different squares with two different moods.
Place Delille
In the Middle Ages, Champ Herm (open area, “deserted field” in Occitan) or Place Champet was the eastern entrance to the city from the Route de Riom and Route de Montferrand. The space was located outside the city walls, in front of the postern opening onto the port neighbourhood. Pope Urban II urged departure there for the first Crusade in 1095.
The demolition of the walls and the tunnelling of Boulevard Trudaine at the end of the 18th century enabled the square to be developed on the city’s former ditches. In the 19th and 20th centuries it connected the new train station neighbourhood (built in 1855) with the historic centre. In 1820 it took the name of the poet and academic Jacques Delille (1738-1813), a native of Clermont. The Fontaine d’Amboise (listed on the HM registry in 1886), now on Square Olympe-de-Gouges, was the first to adorn the centre of the square in 1855, then replaced in 1875 by the present-day fountain (listed on the HM registry in 2007), from the Durenne foundry workshops.
On the eastern side, the large arch marked the entrance to the former 13th century Jacobins convent, now the Godefroy-de-Bouillon high school. On the western side, the Gros pharmacy (listed on the HM registry in 2016), by architect Louis Jarrier (1862-1932), with its storefront by mosaic artists Gentil and Bourdet (1921), demonstrates the patron’s passion for ancient Egypt. At the corner of rue du Port, the neo-classical building made from Volvic stone is by architect Henri Taché (1813-1864). On the northern side of the square was the Michelin swimming pool where most Clermont residents learned to swim under the benevolent gaze of a water-spitting Michelin man.
Place Salford
The square is the culmination of the streets that converge from the train station. The veterans monument (1923, listed on the HM registry in 2019), 12 m high, is the work of architect Valéry Bernard (1885-1960) and sculptor Maurice Vaury (1878-1965). Its style is Art Deco, with three high reliefs depicting the great battles of World War I: Verdun, the Somme and the Marne, surmounted by a grenadier whose posture enhances the dynamics of the composition.
Around the square, two buildings have Architecture Contemporaine Remarquable (remarkable contemporary architecture) status: the post office building (1908 and 1962) by architects Jacques-Honoré Méridier, Laurent Ponchon, André Papillard, Georges Labro and the chapel of Godefroy-de-Bouillon high school (1935-1941) by architects Adrien and Michel Mitton.
