La Préfecture des Bouches du Rhône

The Prefecture, located since the First Empire in the Hôtel Roux de Corse (now the Lycée Montgrand), is too small for a city of great importance.

Maupas decided to build a new 7500m2 building, facing the rue Saint-Ferréol. The building was in the form of a quadrilateral and was organized around two courtyards: a semi-circular main courtyard and a rectangular courtyard housing the stables. The plans and specifications were approved by the General Council in February 1862.

The department's architect, Auguste Martin, carried out the structural work until his resignation in November 1864. The cost overruns, which Maupas did not care about, became a cause for concern. François-Joseph Nolau, Second Prix de Rome, succeeded him until 1869 to complete the interior of the monument: painting and stucco decorations, furniture, bronzes, crystal chandeliers, etc. The expenses are colossal.
To create the ceiling decorations, Nolau chose, with Maupas' approval, the Marseille artist Antoine Dominique Magaud, famous for his portraits and religious paintings. The work was considerable: four honorary rooms and the senator's apartments. The whole was completed in 1868, except for the Salon de l'Horloge which was finished in 1872. The painted cycle, as well as the ornamental sculptures glorify the Second Empire and its benefits. The grand staircase, comparable in its majesty to the staircases of the Palais Longchamp, and whose structure has two double revolutions, leads on one side to the apartments of honor, and on the other to the rooms of the General Council.
The new Prefecture was inaugurated at the end of 1866, but on December 31, Maupas was dismissed. His successor, the prefect Levert, was forced to pay the debts while continuing the work undertaken