Town Hall in Tarnowskie Góry

The town hall in Tarnowskie Góry stands at Rynek 4 and is the second town hall in the town's history. The Neo-Renaissance, three-storey building with an almost forty-metre tower was opened in 1898. The municipal authorities are still housed in it today.

Construction

On the site of the town hall there had earlier stood a county court, and before that the Upper Silesian Mining School. The town council, led by Mayor Simon Kotitschke, bought the plot after the court in 1894 and the old building was pulled down. The design was prepared by Herman Guth of Berlin, and the construction, begun in 1896, was led by Carl Benjamin Szametike. A fire caused by the carelessness of workers destroyed the tower's spire in 1897, and the finished town hall was opened on 11 August 1898.

Façade and interiors

The façade combines three materials: red clinker brick, Silesian granite in the plinth and Lower Silesian sandstone in the coats of arms and emblems. The coats of arms were carved by the Berlin court stonemason Matthias Carl Schilling. In a niche of the façade, from 1899, stood a statue of Prince George of Hohenzollern-Ansbach, a gift from the county authorities. It was removed in 1934, a copy was recreated during the occupation, and in 1957 it was taken down again. In 1958 it was replaced by a sculpture of a miner (gwarek).

Originally the ground floor housed shops, the first floor offices, and the second the mayor's flat and the council chamber. The chamber was altered during the renovation of 1925 and has wooden panelling and a wooden vault. In 1899 the first congress of representatives of Upper Silesia was held here. A wrought-iron balustrade on the staircase has survived, which during the Second World War was decorated with scenes from the town's history painted by Józef Machwitz.

The roof was repaired and the tower rebuilt in 1994, and the main façade was renovated in 2010. The town hall is entered in the heritage register.

Nearby

It is about two hundred metres from the town hall to Plac Gwarków, and two kilometres further lies the Silver Mine in Tarnowskie Góry.

Practical information

• Address: Rynek 4, Tarnowskie Góry.
• This is an active office, so you view it mainly from the outside, from the Market Square.