Town Hall (Baden)
The town hall is the seat of the city administration of Baden in the canton of Aargau . It is part of a four-building block of public buildings in the old town. This also includes the town hall on its north side and the former armory and the town chancellery on its south side. All four buildings stand on the substructure of a row of houses that was laid out after the mid-14th century as part of a city expansion. From 1426 to 1712, the town hall was the most important meeting place for the daily statutes of the Old Confederation . Since 1995 it has been included in the list of cultural assets of national importance.
town hall
architecture
The town hall (also called "rear town hall"), the second building seen from the north, is the oldest that has been preserved and its core dates back to around 1360. The building, built in the late Gothic style, was first mentioned in documents in 1398. The town hall is twice as wide as the three other buildings and towers over them with its stepped gables .
The west facade, where the main entrance is surrounded by a round arch , is rather simple due to its location in a narrow side street. The east facade, which is oriented towards the slope towards the Limmat , is more representative. Under a raised eaves there is a clock from 1599, which is decorated with elaborate frescoes . The masswork rose is surrounded by a circle of numerals painted blue and gold, which in turn is flanked by allegorical figures of Justitia and the Nemesis . On the ridge there is a roof turret with a bell.
An exterior renovation in 2013 fundamentally changed the overall appearance of the row of houses, as the previously characteristically colorful façades of the buildings - whereby the town hall, which was previously held in dark red, stood out clearly from the lighter flanking buildings - were designed in light colors throughout.
Meeting room
From 1426 the town hall served as a meeting place for the federal assembly , whereby the delegates met in the assembly room on the second floor. The room, which was redesigned in 1497 at the expense of the affluent Agnesspital , is a cultural asset of national importance. It measures around 11 by 7 meters and takes up the entire depth of the building. On both long walls, a massive stone pillar on an abacus supports a hanging structure above the ceiling .
In 1500 the towns of the Confederation and the Baden City Council each donated a coat of arms designed by Lukas Zeiner in the form of glass paintings . They all show the same composition : the coat of arms of the state on a tiled or lawn floor within an arched frame, elevated by the crowned Reich shield and flanked by two shield holders . The original coats of arms (with the exception of the Baden city arms) were sold in 1812 and are in the possession of various public and private art collections. In their place were copies.
After the Second Villmerger War of 1712, there were hardly any daily statutes, as the Catholic towns had been excluded from the administration of the County of Baden and other common lords . In 1714 the French Marshal Villars and Prince Eugene of Savoy signed the Peace of Baden here , which ended the War of the Spanish Succession . During the 19th century the hall served as a temporary classroom. It has been used by the district court since 1876 and is also available for civil weddings. On the occasion of the interior renovation in 1915, the walls were lined with softwood panels.
Adjacent buildings
Townhouse
The town hall adjoins the town hall to the north. It was built at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries and for a long time was an ordinary residential building. Its name “Zur rotten Thür” (later “To the red tower”) referred to the former Ost- or Haldentor, today's Schwibbogen over to the Rathausgasse 2. The two-storey Schwibbogen is decorated with a modern fresco dating from 1970 after the Renovation was painted on. From 1779 until the time of the Helvetic Republic, the town house housed the county of Baden's land registry. It has been owned by the municipality since 1892 and contains administrative rooms.
Armory
The armory , which is attached to the town hall on the south side, dates from 1614 . It is presented in a simple but pure renaissance style . A monumental portal with sturdy arches shapes the entire width of the ground floor on the west facade. A delicate relief decoration by the Württemberg sculptor Bartholomäus Cades extends as far as the first floor above the entrance. It contains a rectangular field in which two lions with imperial orb and sword, the imperial coat of arms and the Baden coat of arms can be seen in duplicate.
City Chancellery
The town chancellery facing the church square forms the southern end of the row of houses. A previous building already existed in the 13th century. In 1442 it was mentioned as belonging to the Zurich Dominican monastery, and from 1527 it was privately owned. The city had the building demolished in 1679 and replaced by a new early baroque building in which the city chancellery was housed. A writing room that was set up on the mezzanine floor still exists today, and the Baden city council meets in a hall on the first floor.
Office building
The office building (also called "Front City Hall") does not belong to the row of houses, but is connected to the City Hall via a covered bridge that spans a narrow side street. The late Gothic building was built in the second half of the 16th century to relieve the town hall. The architect Joseph Caspar Jeuch added classicist style elements to the main facade in 1878 . During the 19th century the administrative building was the seat of the district office; today there are municipal administration rooms here.
literature
- Peter Hoegger: The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Volume VI, District of Baden I. Birkhäuser Verlag , Basel 1976, ISBN 3-7643-0782-X , p. 214-237 .
