Moreover, it dominates in terms of height over other buildings in the market square.

History

The original town hall, which functioned in the 15th century, was built of wood. In the last quarter of the 15th century a brick town hall was erected. In the early modern period, the building underwent several reconstructions, which was usually related to fires that destroyed the town’s buildings (1594, 1600, 1625). After the great fire of Jarosław, which in 1625 consumed the majority of the town’s development, the town hall was altered and was since a Baroque building with three storeys. In 1782 the town hall was taken over by Austrian authorities and transformed into a building with two storeys that functioned as a military workshop. In 1852 the devastated building was bought by town authorities that ordered its full-scale renovation connected with alteration to the design by Antonio Lamasche. The resulting town hall building with an added storey was subject to reconstruction in the Renaissance Revival style already in 1896, to the design of a Lvov-based architect Franciszek Doliński. As a result of this modernisation, a clock tower was erected and the façade of the building was renovated. The town hall obtained its current architectural form in the years 1900-1909, when based on the design by Teodor Talowski the building was expanded in the north by two bays, the entire body was extended upwards by one storey and a one-storey part with prison cells was added in the east. Another renovation in the 1980s did not change the previous appearance and architectural form of the building. Currently, the town hall houses the seat of town authorities.

Description

The town Hall is located in the middle of a market square. The building was erected on a rectangular floor plan, with two and a half longitudinal bays and six transverse bays, with a pass-through hall along the axis of the original body and a single-bay annex on the eastern side with rounded corners. The town hall body is compact, cuboidal, has a basement and four storeys above the ground level, with the third storey in the form of a mezzanine located in the attic. It is covered with a hip roof, while the one-storey part on the eastern side is topped with a shed roof obstructed by the parapet. A clock tower crowned with a cupola with pinnacles constitutes a topographic accentuation. The building is made of brick, plastered; the roofs are clad with interlocking sheet metal. The symmetric front, south façade has nine axes and is articulated along the axis by a shallow avant-corps, an older part and separate two axes resulting from the last reconstruction. The main entrance along the third axis (in the east) has a decorative portal resting on columns, terminating in a semi-circle on top. Horizontal articulation is emphasized by cornices: between storeys, intermediate and crowning, as well as rows of rhythmically arranged windows with separate decorations on each storey: on the ground floor without decorations, on the first storey terminating in a semi-circle with a profiled cornice in the arch, on the second storey - rectangular windows flanked by pilasters supporting the cornice and on the third storey - small windows terminating in semi-circles, arranged in a row alternately with pilasters filling the space of the combed parapet.

Other façades are analogically decorated and flanked along the entire height by engaged columns with coats of arms. The asymmetric north façade has eight-axes and features an entrance in a rectangular portal flanked by pilasters supporting the profiled entablature. The symmetric west façade has five axes and features an entrance along the axis in a colonnaded portal with entablature crowned with a cartouche with the town’s coat of arms on the second floor.

The east façade has three axes and is obscured on the ground floor by an annex. It features semi-circularly terminating openings along five axes, strips in plasterwork and is covered with a combed parapet with a triangular gable and pinnacles in the middle part.

Inside, a convention hall has been preserved. It has a representational character and is embellished with stuccowork.

The historic monument is accessible. The monument is available during the opening hours of the City Hall.

compiled by Mieczysław Kuś, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Rzeszow, 20-12-2014.

Bibliography

• Karta ewidencyjna, Ratusz w Jarosławiu, oprac. H. Jurjewicz, 1996, Archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków Delegatury w Rzeszowie
• Gosztyła M., Jagieła B., Dudzik I., Architektura Galicji w dobie autonomii na przykładzie Jarosławia, Rzeszów 2013, s. 254-264.
• Sołtysik A., Język form Teodora Talowskiego a współczesna kompozycja architektoniczna, Kraków 2012, s. 51.