History

The first town hall was built after Duke Jan II of Żagań issued a building permit in 1483. This happened in the times of Fabian von Schoenaich who was ruling over the estates of the town of Bytom since 1561. The building was erected in the centre of a Market Square. It was built of materials originating from a demolished castle’s chapel. Next to it, there were probably merchant booths. After the building was destroyed by fire, thanks to the efforts of the then owner of Bytom, Georg von Schoenaich, a new town hall was erected at the corner of the western frontage of the Market Square and the present-day Kożuchowska Street between 1602 and 1609. In 1694, the building was also destroyed in a fire. It was reconstructed according to a design by Caspar Miller from Bolesławiec in 1697. The surviving walls and the Renaissance portal were used during the reconstruction. In 1950 the dome of the tower was destroyed by lightning. Falling pieces of the burned dome destroyed the porch with sculpted stone columns. The dome was renovated in 1964. The town hall continues to serve as a local government building to this day.

Description

The town hall, which is sited on two burgher plots in one line with the rest of the tenement houses of the western frontage of the Market Square, is built on a rectangular floor plan and covered with a hip roof. The building is flanked by a characteristic slender tower which has seven storeys and was built on a rectangular floor plan. The entrance located on the ground floor of the tower can be accessed by stairs, surrounded by a stone porch before the collapse in 1950. The entrance is framed by a stone portal lavishly decorated with a coat-of-arms cartouches, pilasters in the form of caryatids and rustication, among others. The tower is crowned by an arcaded gallery and a domed-shaped steeple with two lanterns. Under the gallery there is a clock. The end wall of the town hall is adorned with a cartouche bearing the coat of arms of Bytom, carved in relief. The interior features, among others, a Baroque door dating from 1698, with iron fittings, leading to the town council meeting room, and a tiled stove from the 19th century located in a library. The rooms are covered with a ceiling adorned with decorative profiled beams. In some rooms groin and barrel vaults have been preserved.

Limited access to the monument. Viewing of the interior is only possible during working hours of the Town of Bytom Odrzański Office.

Compiled by dr Krzysztof Garbacz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Zielona Góra, 26-09-2014 r.

Bibliography

• Garbacz K., Przewodnik po zabytkach województwa lubuskiego, t. 2: Powiaty: żarski - żagański - nowosolski - wschowski, Zielona Góra 2014, s. 254-255, fot. 137.
• Kowalski S., Miasta Środkowego Nadodrza dawniej. Historia zapisana w zabytkach, Zielona Góra 1994, s. 24.
• Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, s. 53-54.