History

Before the masonry town hall was erected in Szprotawa, meetings of the municipal council were held in a wooden merchant's house, which was located on the edge of the market square in the Middle Ages. The council was operating as early as in the 13th century. The earliest mention of it dates back to 1299. The first mention of the town of Sprottava and the local parish church dates from as early as 1260. It is believed that the town was chartered by Konrad I, Duke of Głogów, under Magdeburg Law after 1251. In the 14th century an elongated multi-storey town hall, built of brick, which was the first local government building, was erected on the site formerly occupied by a merchant’s house. In 1539, the building was extended by one bay to the north and a tower designed in the Late Gothic style was added to the eastern gable. In the late 16th century and early 17th century, the town hall underwent complete renovation. After the fire which broke out in the next century, in 1730-1732 the structure was extended during the reconstruction carried out according to a design by Martin Frantz.

Description

The three-storey Baroque building is covered with a hip roof and flanked by two towers: one tower designed in the Baroque style and one in the Gothic-Renaissance style. The older tower located in the north-eastern corner of the town hall, with its lower sections being quadrangular in shape and its upper sections being octagonal in shape, is crowned with a gallery with simple wooden columns and a three-storey steeple. The other tower, built in the south-western corner of the town hall, is quadrangular in shape with concave walls and broad corner pilasters. It is crowned with an open terrace and a narrow storey with a slender steeple featuring a lantern. The walls of the tower are decorated with horizontal cornices and cornices surrounding the clock faces and circular windows, among others. Some of the rooms of the town hall feature groin vaults and barrel vaults.

Limited access to the monument.

Compiled by dr Krzysztof Garbacz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Zielona Góra, 19-09-2014 r.

Bibliography

• Garbacz K., Przewodnik po zabytkach województwa lubuskiego, t. 2: Powiaty: żarski - żagański - nowosolski - wschowski, Zielona Góra 2012, s. 145, fot. 73.
• Kowalski S., Miasta Środkowego Nadodrza dawniej. Historia zapisana w zabytkach, Zielona Góra 1994, s. 162-163.
• Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, s. 376-377.
• Kręglewska-Foksowicz E., Szprotawa, [w:] Kaczmarczyk Z., Wędzki A. (red.), Studia nad początkami i rozplanowaniem miast nad środkową Odrą i dolną Wartą (województwo zielonogórskie), t. 2: Dolny Śląsk, Dolne Łużyce, Zielona Góra 1970, s. 386, 390.