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

History

The town hall building was built in the Gothic style, probably in the first quarter of the 15th century by the then owner of Przeworsk, Jan Tarnowski. The ground floor of the town hall featured a grand chamber where councillors assembled and the Voit and Jury court convened. The basements were used as a town prison. Similarly as in other towns of a comparable size, the one-storey part of the town hall housed rooms leased to more affluent residents of Przeworsk for trade and service purposes as well as public utility devices, such as a town weight. In the first half of the 18th century an inn and a stable functioned on the ground floor of the town hall. In 1909 the town hall was reconstructed. A new, stepped roof covered with beaver tail roof tiles was installed; beyond, a tower with a loggia was extended upwards and its roof was clad with sheet metal. A small annex was added in the south. For years, it housed a seat of the fire brigade. In the years 1984-1986 a full-scale renovation of the town hall was carried out; during the works the roof structure was reinforced and its cladding was replaced with copper sheet; inside the building, the renovation works covered, among others, a hall, a staircase and door woodwork. Currently, the town hall houses a wedding room of the Civil Registry, Euro-Regional Tourist Information Centre and a café.

Description

The town hall is located in a most elevated, eastern part of the market square and projects slightly ahead of the development line of the east frontage of the market square. It was erected on a rectangular floor plan, with two longitudinal and four transverse bays; a newer annex adjoins to the building from the south. The town hall body is compact, cuboidal, with two storeys over the ground; in the west it is supported by three massive, slanting buttresses. The building has a basement underneath and is topped with a hip, stepped roof with a tall tower crowned with a cupola. Two secondary annexes abut on the town hall in the south: a one-storey, cuboidal annex covered with multi-hipped roof and a taller one in the form of a tower, housing a staircase and crowned with an envelope roof. The building is made of brick, the walls are plastered on both sides; the roofs are clad with interlocking sheet. The front façade is supported by three slanting buttresses and features three axes on the ground floor, an entrance with a decorative portal with a triangular pediment along the southern axis; on the upper floor, the symmetric façade has four axes and features windows accentuated by profiled, chambranle surrounds as well as strips of window headers. Its axis is additionally accentuated by a triangular gable with a coat of arms of the town and a tower with an arcaded loggia. The rear façade is asymmetrically arranged, with a portal on the ground floor along the southern axis, located in a stepped niche with a triangular crowning circumscribed by a profiled surround as well as windows on the upper floor that are accentuated by profiled, chambranle surrounds. The north façade has an asymmetric arrangement with window openings accentuated by profiled, chambranle surrounds. The south façade, half-obscured by an annex, features windows devoid of any decorations. The entire body is crowned with a profiled crowning cornice surmounted by a massive tower with an arcaded loggia and a cupola with coat of arms of the Tarnowski family on a spire. On the ground floor, in the southern bay, there is an originally pass-through hall - currently partitioned. Groin vaults have survived in the hall, while rooms on the ground floor include barrel vaults with lunettes and groin vaults. Floors are made of marble and terracotta.

The monument is available during the opening hours of the civil registry.

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

Bibliography

• Karta ewidencyjna, Ratusz w Przeworsku, oprac. T. Piekarz, 1998, Archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków Delegatury w Rzeszowie
• Siedem wieków Przeworska. Szkice, studia i materiały z dziejów miasta, pod red. A. Kunysza, Rzeszów 1974.
• Wojnar I., Przeworsk, Przeworsk 1997, s. 55-57.