surrounding a monumental entrance, were (with those of the Hôtel de Ville and University) the only ones that encroached on municipal space - the mark and privilege of the governor. Its staircase is adorned with the Villars coats-of-arms (stolen in 1980). From then on it was known as the Hôtel de Villars. However, Honoré Armand mostly lived in Marseille and rarely came to Aix, where he was little-welcomed by the people and the notables, particularly by the Parliament of Aix-en-Provence. This ostracism was not due to his manners, common in that era, but due to the fact that he represented the king and did not waive any of the civil privileges that came with that role. This regal attitude irked a somewhat rebellious province that had only recently been joined to France, where Mirabeau was elected as representative of the Third Estate. However, by his will of 27 June 1765, Honoré Armand left the town of Aix-en-Provence an important sum for the creation of a public library, a public gardens, a cabinet of antiquities and medals and a school of drawing. That school was immediately installed in the Chapelle des Dames, a dependent of the Collège Bourbon. He also left a statue of his father by the sculptor Nicolas Coustou for the hall of the public library - this sculpture was closed in the Benedictine convent after the French Revolution and was forgotten until 1812, when it was put at the top of the grand staircase of the Hôtel de ville. His daughter, widowed soon after her marriage, ended her days in a convent and so Honoré Armand de Villars had no descendants in the male line. References 1702 births 1770 deaths Members of the Académie Française 18th-century LGBT people Princes of Martigues Dukes of Villars Viscounts of Melun Governors of Provence LGBT nobility Grandees of Spain Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain