Brzeg Town Hall is a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

building designed by Bernard Niuron built between 1569 and 1577. It is considered to be one of the most important

monuments in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. In addition to its role as the seat of the municipal government of Brzeg, the building houses several other institutions.

History

The first building housing the municipal government in Brzeg already existed in the fourteenth century but was burned down in the town's great fire during the reign of

George II of Brieg George II of Brieg (18 July 1523, in Legnica – 7 May 1586, in Brzeg), was a Duke of Brzeg from 1547 until his death. He was the second son of Frederick II, Duke of Legnica-Brzeg, by his second wife Sophie, daughter of Frederick I, Margrav ...

. The present town hall was built between 1569 and 1577. It was designed by the Italian architect Bernardo Niuron, assisted by the Italian builder Giacomo Parr, who have been also involved in the construction of the

Brzeg Castle Brzeg Castle is located in Brzeg, Opole Voivodeship, within the Polish part of the Silesia region. Now a museum, the structures includes the Piast dynasty mausoleum. Geography Brzeg Castle is located on a cliff to the west of the Oder River, in ...

. In later years, the building underwent minor alterations in some of its rooms, which were adapted for administrative purposes. In 1926, a Renaissance gate, from one of the

Brzeg Brzeg (; Latin: ''Alta Ripa'', German: ''Brieg'', Silesian German: ''Brigg'', , ) is a town in southwestern Poland with 34,778 inhabitants (December 2021) and the capital of Brzeg County. It is situated in Silesia in the Opole Voivodeship on the ...

townhouses, was added to the southern façade. The Voivodeship Conservation Orders of 25 November 1949 and 10 January 1964 listed the town hall as a heritage monument.

Architecture

The town hall is a

structure built in the town square, surrounded by an inner courtyard of townhouses. It has two storeys and a saddle roof. The most interesting part of the building is its western side. In the corner there are two quadrangular towers with

tented roof A tented roof (also known as a pavilion roof) is a type of polygonal hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak. W. Dean EastmanHometown Handbook: Architecture./ref> Tented roofs, a hallmark of medieval religious architecture, wer ...

s and

roof lantern A roof lantern is a daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight structure. A lantern roof wil ...

s. Between them spans a five-axis

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...

, with semicircular arches on the ground floor. Over the loggia there is another level with windows, which are separated from the

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

by a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. Fragments of the façade are covered with

sgraffito ''Sgraffito'' (; plural: ''sgraffiti'') is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface, or in pottery, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive laye ...

decorations from the seventeenth-century. There is a four-sided central tower with an octagonal cupola topped with a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

and two

s. The interiors have been preserved with halls and corridors of the original design, most notably the Hall of Councillors with its wall paintings and fine ceiling. The Stropowa Hall has a

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains furt ...

ceiling from 1646. Currently, the town hall functions as the seat of the city and several other institutions. File:POPPEL(1852) p495 DAS RATHHAUS IN BRIEG.jpg, Town hall in 1852 File:Brzeg_town_hall_model,_2021.jpg, Brzeg town hall model File:Sgraffito on Brzeg Town Hall 1.jpg, Sgraffiti in the inner courtyard

References

{{Coord, 50.8617, N, 17.4694, E, source:wikidata, display=title Brzeg County City and town halls in Poland Renaissance buildings and structures