The Hôtel des Postes dominates Place Saint-François thanks to its central position and large size. It was built in 1896-1900 as part of works to develop the southern side of the square. The old buildings that stood there, alongside the church, were demolished to make way for traffic and the new tram line. A number of business and administration buildings were constructed, radically modifying the vocation of the area.
The building houses the head offices of the post office and customs service for the various administrative divisions. It is one in a series of post offices constructed in the same period in Switzerland’s major cities and constitutes, after the Federal Court in Montbenon, a second federal facility of great importance in Lausanne.
The winner of the planning competition was Eugène Jost (1865-1946), an architect educated at Paris’ Ecole des Beaux-Arts and designer of prestigious palaces in Montreux and Lausanne. While he used advanced techniques such as reinforced concrete for the structure, he opted for an eclectic encasement mainly influenced by the style of the Renaissance era and reminiscent of the castles along the Loire: white stone, a high roof with chimneys and skylights, and Mannerist ornamentation.
The building still belongs to the Post Office today.
