City Hall

City Hall

This is a Renaissance building in Poznan's Market Square. Its oldest parts are early Gothic, ribbed and cross vaulted cellars, the first floor of the Great Hall (Renaissance Hall) with its vault decorated with images of animals, mythological and biblical characters, the sun, the moon and planets. In the Royal Hall there is a Renaissance fireplace decorated with the city's coat of arms. The Court Room has a 16th-century Renaissance vault.

The external look of City Hall is a result of a 16th-century reconstruction when the original 14th-century building, along with a major part of the city, got burned. The City Hall was enlarged towards the west to support the Gothic tower which was in danger of collapsing. The building received a fresh Renaissance design and a façade with a 3-storey loggia. Over the arcade arches of the ground floor relief decoration was placed, depicting virtues which should characterize city councillors: patience and prudence, charity and justice, faith and hope, valour and moderation. The other elevations are not that richly ornamented.

It is worth paying attention to buttresses strengthening the tower on the north side and to the attic which on the east side resembles a fortification wall with 3 towers. In the middle tower there is a clock above which every day at midday two metal goats butting heads appear. The first clock mechanism was installed in 1551.

Nowadays the City Hall houses the Historical Museum of Poznan, showing the history of Poznan from 13th century until 1954. It is arranged in the rooms of the ground, first and second floors.