BARDEJOV
BARDEJOV
CITY HALL
City hall in Bardejov is an exceptional architectural gem. A Gothic-Renaissance building built between 1505 - 1509 is considered the first secular Renaissance building in Slovakia. It is the work of Master Alexander, who in 1508 made so called Italiann windows, oriel and stone portals for the new city hall. In 1509, the city hall was completed by Master John of Prešov in a late Gothic style. He also built gables and decorated them with stone elements. Paintings are the work of Teofil Stanzel, a painter from Bardejov, who painted coats of arms on the city hall gables and the mural painting The Last Court in the meeting hall of the City hall. Exterior was painted in 1641 by Matthias Grünwald, a painter fom Bardejov. In 1556, a rare oriel windows was completed on the eastern side.
City hall was the seat of the town council, the center of commercial, social and cultural life of burgesses. Ground floor served to business purposes upstairs rooms were used by town council and town treasury. On the south-western corner of the outer city hall side are preserved two hollow urban measures, used for measuring grain and legumes. Coat of arms and initials of the hen reeve were assumed to guarantee the accuracy of measures. On the northen side under the clock is the town coat of arms and the southern gable hosts a sculpture of the knight Roland, defender of municipal rights. Councilmen were entering the town hall by a side entrance through a richly decorated wooden oriel.
In 1985 it was declarated a national cultural monument. Currently, it serves for the presentation of the most valuable artistic and historical exhibits of the Šariš Museum. Documents to the administration of the town, sculptures and panel painting, epitaphs and precious munuments of literary culture of Bardejov can be found here.
In 2000 it was declarated in the UNESCO - World Cultural and Natural Heritage by UNESCO.
Today, the historical premises of the town are used as rooms of the Šarišské museum, where the historical exhibition Bardejov - Free Royal City is permanently located.
Source (Translated from): www.bardejov.sk
