Travel Guide
Town Hall
Town Hall in Torun belongs to the most spectacular achievements of medieval urban architecture in Europe. As early as in XIII century, in the Old Town Market of dimensions 109x104 m, the following detached commercial and administrative buildings were erected: cloth halls, bread bakeries, a city scales, a court and a marketplace tower of 23 m in height. In late XIV century, the town received a privilege to build a Town Hall from the Grand Master of the Order of Teutonic Knights. In place of the abovementioned buildings, a new single-storey rectangular Town Hall of dimensions 43,7x52,4 m was erected.
It boasted an internal courtyard and a tower (already existing), which was elevated to its contemporary height (40 m) and merged into the Town Hall architectonic structure. In the beginning of the XVII century municipal authorities decide that the Town Hall should be enlarged. An architect from Gdansk, Antoni van Obberghen adds another storey to the Town Hall, enlarges window orifices and places renaissance towers in corners of the building. At that time the main tower received a pavilion roof and four corner turrets. The interior of the Town Hall was completely rebuilt and decorated with multiple splendid portals. In 1703, during a siege by Swedish army, the Town Hall was seriously devastated, mainly due to an outbreak of fire. Reconstruction lasted several years and the present shape of the Town Hall is mainly the effect of work carried out in the first half of the XVIII century. After the Second World War a District Museum that functions to the present day was opened in the Town Hall. [Torun]
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