he Monastery of St. Ursus. In the first half of the 13th Century, a city wall was built around the area of the former castrum as well as the adjoining industrial area to the east and the churches of St. Peter and St. Urs. Near the Monastery of St. Ursus, a Franciscan monastery was built, and after 1280 it formed the northern city wall on the eastern part of the city. In 1532, the French embassy with a church and stately home was built in the eastern half of the city. In the western part of Solothurn, the town hall was built. First it was along the main street and in 1476 it moved south of the Franciscan monastery. A main market place grew up along the main street, and in the first half of the 17th century it moved to the northern banks of the Aare river. The town hall, market place and clock tower formed the political and economic centre of city life.
Early Modern Solothurn
The medieval cooperative election of the mayor and councillors led to the creation of a nearly hereditary oligarchy by the 15th Century. By the second half of the 16th Century, the political voice of citizens was nearly totally suppressed. By the second half of the 17th Century, the government was run by a small group of patricians. The oligarchs were weakened in the 18th Century, when in 1718-21 the city council managed to regain some powers. However, in 1682, a new citizenship law prevented wealthy families who had moved into Solothurn from becoming members of the council. While this law reduced the number of people who could be on the city council, the introduction of a secret ballot procedure in 1764 and measures against vote-buying in 1774 allowed more and more non-patrician burghers to join the council.
During the heyday of the patricians in the 17th and 18th Centuries, a number of elegant town houses (Reinert House 1692-93, Palais Besenval 1703-06) and summer residences outside the city (Sommerhaus Vigier 1648-50, Waldegg Castle 1682-86, Steinbrugg Castle
