Town Hall (Breslau)
The Wroclaw City Hall , also known as the Old City Hall , is the symbol of the city of Wroclaw . It's on the southeast corner of the Great Ring .
history
The town hall was built
painting by Carl Bourdet around 1900
The first documentary mention of the town hall comes from a rent invoice for the building from 1299. This first building was called Consistorium (Latin for installation site) in the historical source and consisted of a ground floor, a cellar and a hall with a roof and an adjacent west tower . These rooms thus form the oldest section of the town hall. At that time, however, the building was not used as an administrative center, but primarily for trade. Up until the 16th century, several structural extensions and conversions were carried out, which corresponded to the needs of the respective time. For example, the structure was expanded between 1328 and 1333; it was given a second floor, in which the premises for the city council were. A courtroom was added on the ground floor between 1343 and 1357. Furthermore, the west tower was raised and expanded. This established the building as an important authority in the city's judicial and administrative system.
The largest reconstruction of the building took place between 1470 and 1480, the building was almost doubled in size and received a facade designed in the late Gothic style . In addition, richly decorated floors were laid, new bay windows were added and the north and west wings were equipped with new ornate gables. In 1510, the interior of the Great Hall was newly plastered and decorated with decorative paintings. Furthermore, a new larger treasury was built. In the 17th and 18th centuries, hardly any changes were made to the building itself.
Since the 19th century
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At the beginning of the 19th century, the building no longer met the requirements of a modern administration. The aging building became too small. In order to create space for extensive renovation work, the court first moved into a separate building. As a result, the council building was extensively renovated and modernized from 1808. It received new exterior decoration in the Gothic style . In the years 1860 to 1863, a neo-Gothic extension based on the designs of Friedrich August Stüler was built next to the existing town hall on the plot of the canvas house with the new town hall . The new council building houses the mayor's representative rooms and meeting rooms for the city council . After the opening of the new house, the historic town hall was renovated in 1865 by Carl Johann Bogislaw Lüdecke . He had the partition walls installed subsequently removed and a new staircase added on the north side.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the town hall was rebuilt because it had gradually lost its administrative function; it has served as the city museum since then. During the Second World War , the town hall was slightly damaged, but the roof showed considerable damage. In the years 1949–1953, Marcin Bukowski directed the restoration of the building. It has been a landmark of the city of Wroclaw ever since. In the historic building, the Museum of bourgeois art is ( Pol. Muzeum Sztuki Mieszczańskiej ). In the basement there is still the Schweidnitzer Keller beer tavern, which has existed for more than 700 years (from approx. 1275) .
architecture
Exterior
Wroclaw City Hall is one of the most beautiful preserved Gothic- style buildings in Poland and Europe.
The richly decorated east facade with an astronomical clock from 1580 is depicted in numerous publications about the city. Its tracery and pinnacles date from around 1500. The bay window on the southeast corner was created by Briccius Gauske from Görlitz in the years 1476–1488 . The south facade with several oriels comes from the second half of the 15th century. Her sculptures depict scenes from urban life in the Middle Ages . The Renaissance- style town hall tower, which is integrated into the western part of the building, was built between 1588 and 1595. It is 66 m high. In the years 1898 to 1892, the town hall received additional figures from the workshop of the sculptor Oskar Rassau , including the council clerk on the southern front, for whom Gustav Dickhuth , honorary citizen of Wroclaw, was a model.
inside rooms
Citizen Hall
The Bürgerhalle is the largest room on the ground floor of the town hall. This was originally used as a meeting place for the citizens. After the structural extensions of the town hall in the 14th century, the citizenship got a new room, the facility in the town hall now served as a business and party room. The two-aisled room is lined with arcade arches on pillars. The cross and ring vault comes from
the year 1616.
Fürstensaal
The Fürstensaal was built between 1343 and 1347, almost fifty years later, between 1450 and 1460 it received a new cross vault . The room was originally used by the Silesian estates, hence the name Fürstensaal . On November 7, 1741, the Silesian estates paid homage to the Prussian King Frederick the Great here .
Courtroom
The courtroom is directly connected to the Bürgerhalle. It was created when the town hall was expanded in the 14th century. In 1456 the beam ceiling, supported by a pillar with a star vault, was drawn in.
Council Chamber
The council chamber is the old center of power in Wroclaw. This is where the city's top dignitaries met for six centuries. The council chamber was built between 1328 and 1333 and received its Gothic appearance in the middle of the 14th century, including a cross vault. The once rich interior, such as a large carved oak table and paintings by Michael Willmann , were relocated during the Second World War and have been lost since then.
The chapel in which the councilors attended mass can be reached via a staircase in the room . Traces of the uprising of 1418 are preserved on the stairs. At that time, angry citizens out of anger at excessive taxes stormed the council chamber above the chapel and executed seven councilors.
Council Elder's Room
The councilor's room is next to the Remter and was built around 1471. The room is dominated by the star vault and 17 paintings by councilors from 1485. Originally the room was used by the city treasurer, from the middle of the 19th century then by the mayor of Wroclaw.
Remter
The Remter, also known as the knight's or ballroom , is the largest hall in the town hall. Architects consider this 650 square meter room to be one of the most beautiful and important Gothic rooms in Europe. Every year the citizens here paid homage to the newly elected council. Furthermore, the room was often used as an event location, such as a theater or parties. In the 18th century, the Remter served Prussian soldiers as a drill room. Later the room was redesigned several times and got its current appearance (status 2014) in the 1930s.
Administrative hierarchy in the arrangement of the rooms
The senior attorney Georg August von Görner , appointed by Emperor Leopold I in 1679 and appointed for affairs in Upper and Lower Silesia, performed his office in the council chamber and the council chancellery behind it. He could go into the courtroom as the emperor's commissioner or listen to the court unseen through a specially attached grille on the door. Furthermore, as the emperor's advocate, he had the opportunity to enter the lay judges' room above a staircase from the chancellery and to visit the jury's office located next to it. The structural arrangement of the rooms provided the supervision and control of the emperor from Vienna over the decisions of the Breslau lay judges, the city council and the court.
Entrance platform to the council chamber in the town hall of the town hall
Council Chamber in the Wroclaw City Hall
Lower Silesian and city coats of arms in the council chamber
Iron door of the council chamber with Bohemian lions as the emblem of sovereignty over Lower and Upper Silesia
Council Chancellery in the Wroclaw City Hall
Upper Silesian and city coats of arms in the council office
Wooden door u. Stairs to the jury's office on the upper floor
Side grille for eavesdropping on the court
Web links
- Ring and town hall
- Ratusz - City Hall Wroclaw na portalu polska-org.pl (Polish)
literature
- Stefan Arczyński, Jan J. Trzynadlowski: Ratusz wrocławki. Muzeum Historyczne, Wrocław 1998, ISBN 83-905227-3-0
- Izabella Gawin, Dieter Schulze, Reinhold Vetter: Silesia - German and Polish cultural traditions in a European border region. DuMont art travel guide. DuMont, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7701-4418-X , pp. 94-97
- Rudolf Stein: The Schweidnitzer cellar in the town hall of Breslau. A venerable mirror of old Wroclaw history and cheerful art, of comfortable enjoyment and comfortable life. Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn, Breslau 1941
- Mieczyslaw Zlat: The Wroclaw City Hall. Zaklad Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich Wydawnictwo, Wrocław et al. 1977
- Klaus Klöppel: Breslau - Lower Silesia and its millennial capital. Trescher Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-89794-256-1 , pp. 51-58
Individual evidence
- ^ Museum of the City of Wroclaw
- ↑ A. Schultz: The town hall to Breslau , In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen. 1869, Ernst & Sohn publishing house, Berlin; P. 49ff.
Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′ 34.6 ″ N , 17 ° 1 ′ 54.5 ″ E