Town Hall of Słupsk

The Town Hall in Słupsk is a building in the Polish city of Słupsk. It has been enlisted into the group of monuments protected by law.

History

The town hall was built and given to the public in 1901. It is built in a neogothic style and situated just near Victory Square ("Plac Zwyciestwa"). The building still remains the official residence of the town council.

The area where the town hall now stands used to be a lake. [ [http://www.ssi.slupsk.pl/Slupskie_ratusze/Historia_ratusza.html SSI Słupsk - Słupskie ratusze > Historia ratusza ] ] It was not until the second half of the nineteenth century when the terrain was covered with sand from the Northern Wood. From that moment the square’s surroundings started to develop into a suburb behind the New Gate. The city in a continuous expansion felt a rising need for a new, bigger town hall. The previous one, built in 1798, started to collapse after a hundred years. That is why the local authorities decided to build a new one. Subsequently, new area of the former hospital (Tuwima St.) was bought and an architectural contest was announced.

On 16th and 17th May 1898 r. in the primary school on Deotymy St. all the applying projects were introduced to the public. The commission, however, was very demanding. It was led by a famous architect – Licht who gained a formidable reputation for his extraordinary design for the town hall in Lipsk.

It took two days until the commission decided on which project to choose. Namely it was the so called “Old German gothic format” by prof. Karl Zaar. The project estimated that there would be 23 176 cubic metres of floor area. The value of the investment totaled 300 thousand DM, a figure which substantially exceeded the town’s capacity.

On 17 July the first blueprints were drafted by Rudolf Vahl. Were it not for him, there would not be any rosettes on the ceiling, arabesques on the stairs or even originally-shaped mayor’s desk now.

After numerous heated debates the old town hall was sold with little profit and eventually totally destroyed. Furthermore, local authorities were forced to pass legislation, under which, the area after the old town hall will never be used. So it has remained unbuilt and unused until these days.

The construction site of the new town hall in the meantime was launched in a furious pace. On 22 September 1900 the building was finished and all the workers were served a free beer in reward. Finally, on 5 July 1901 a solemn opening celebration took place.

Notable features

The town hall of Słupsk together with a few other monuments in Poland portrays a lot of elements originating from an authentic interior decoration. With no doubts, the most precious is the mayor’s room which due to its special construction is among the rarest projects in Europe. It is surrounded by 12 walls and is decorated with original furniture and an absolutely phenomenal tapestry. In the room of the second mayor, on the other hand, there is an impressive painting on the wall by [http://www.artnet.com/artist/669432/friedrich-klein-chevalier.html Friedrich Klien - Chevalier] which portrays hunting for salmons. The piece of art has been cited to be so special that it can be given to the public for the evaluation without hesitation.

Interestingly enough, the new town hall is mysterious and full of hidden places. For instance, no one knows what the hidden door in the conference room is for. As it later appeared, there is a tiny space behind the door where hardly a man can get. It has been proved that the room has an excellent acoustics. It is laughed at that the place was designed on purpose to hide spies noting the course of significant conferences.A similar puzzle constitutes a safe that could not be opened for a long time. As it was later discovered it contained a treasure – German water-pipe system plans, and others. As a matter of fact such plans were after the war even more precious than gold. Apart from mysterious places there are also numerous hidden passages and underground tunnels of an unknown use.

References

External links

* [http://www.wkraj.pl/index.php?page=vr&start=1453 Virtual tour of the building]