The building was constructed between 1738 to 1752 in a Neoclassical style with Tuscan influences and has colonnades on two sides and a vestibule which was treated as a setting for a grand staircase. It is adjoined the river Moselle on one side and the customs house at the back, but its other two sides were given monumental facades of porticos and columns. Here, too, a grand staircase occupied most of the vestibule, beginning as a single flight and dividing at right ang half-way up.