Palais Rohan in Strasbourg

You're standing at the Palais Rohan, right next to Strasbourg Cathedral. It's the finest Baroque building in the city. Start with the front on the Place du Château. It's wide and curved, and the gate juts out like a triumphal arch, framed by two pairs of columns. Up on top stand statues of faith and Christian virtues, like Mercy and Penance. That's no accident. Cardinal Armand Gaston de Rohan had the palace built between 1732 and 1742. It was meant to announce that Catholicism was back, in a city that had been Protestant for two centuries. That's also why the bishop's own rooms face the cathedral.