After the recession at the end of the Middle Ages, the city underwent a period of prosperity and important changes from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 16th centuries. In 1558 a bell tower was built in the center of the city, on today’s Place de la République. The aristocracy living in the city center at the time built luxurious dwellings. Many of these town houses were constructed around central courtyards and richly decorated. In the « Vieux Bourg », known today as the Roquette quarter, lived sailors, dockers and farmers. The « Bourg Neuf » was home to the bourgeois merchants. The « Marché-Neuf », the section around the rue Président Wilson, was inhabited by innkeepers and craftsmen.
The new City Hall was finished in 1676. It was designed by Jacques Peytret, counseled by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, who in the same year was named royal architect by Louis XIV. The building is a masterpiece of classical architecture. From that date on, the Place de la République, known as the Place Royale at the time, underwent numerous transformations. The reconstructions of the 17th century and changes brought about in the 18th century give Arles the profile that we know today..