Erected in the first half of the 18th century, it was subsequently extended in the second half of the 19th century. A representative example of an early modern public building in Silesia.

History

The town hall was erected in years 1725-26 on the basis of the design produced by Felix Anton Hammerschmidt; it is now believed that the town hall came into being as a result of an extensive redesign of an earlier structure which stood on the same spot. In 1734, the town hall was engulfed by the flames as a great conflagration swept across the town; it was subsequently reconstructed and extended. The tower was most likely extended upwards in 1784, with further modifications in the form of a Gothic Revival roof being made in 1864. In 1972, the building underwent a thorough restoration.

Description

The building is located in the town centre, in the middle of the market square. Designed on a rectangular floor plan with rounded corners, it is a two-storey brick and stone structure with a hip roof. It was designed in the Baroque style with heavy Classicist influences, although some elements of the Gothic Revival style are also clearly evident. The front (western) façade follows a nine-axial layout with a three-axial pseudo-avant-corps in the middle, accentuated with paired giant order pilasters. Above the said avant-corps rises a large, three-axial wall-dormer stretching across the entire width of the building, with a square tower jutting from the middle. The tower itself is crowned with a slender spire rising above an openwork top section with large traceried windows. The wall dormer rises significantly above the roof ridge and is covered with a separate gable roof positioned perpendicularly towards the rest of the building. The individual storeys are separated with a cornice, while the windows are adorned with simple, plain surrounds, with the exception of the first-floor windows above the entrance featuring cornice-like window headers. The window header above the middle window forms an arched shape, while the ones above the side windows follow a similar outline, albeit inverted. The entrance portal in the middle of the avant-corps is topped with a slightly overhanging basket-handle arch with a pronounced keystone incorporating the town’s coat of arms. On the south-western corner stands a stone, polychromed Baroque sculpture of St John of Nepomuk (1727), positioned atop a decorative plinth. The ground floor rooms of the town hall feature barrel vaults with lunettes.

The interiors may be explored during the opening hours of the Municipal Office.

compiled by Piotr Roczek, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wrocław, 19-06-2015.

Bibliography

• Słownik Geografii Turystycznej Sudetów. Vol. 8 Kotlina Kamiennogórska. Wzgórza Bramy Lubawskiej. Zawory, M. Staffa (ed.), Wrocław 1997, pp. 213-214.
• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Warsaw 2006, p. 508.