Tartu Town Hall ( et, Tartu raekoda) is the seat of the city government of

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. It is located on Town hall square, in the city centre.

History and architecture

The history of the town hall pre-dates the current town hall, as the present building is the third consecutive town hall built on the same location. It was erected, following the Great fire of Tartu, between 1782 and 1789 to designs by the German architect

Johann Heinrich Bartholomäus Walter Johann Heinrich Bartholomäus Walter or Walther (1734–1802) was a Baltic German architect, working in Tartu where he produced a number of buildings including Tartu Town Hall. Life Walter was born in Rostock in 1734. He moved to Tartu in wh ...

. From the outset, the building was designed to house a number of tenants in addition to the city government; a prison and a storage for weighs and measures were included already in the original drawings. The town hall has always suffered from a lack of space, and to this day a pharmacy is located in parts of the premises. The architect and mason, J. H. B. Walther, also worked on the

Von Bock House Von Bock House is in Ülikooli Street in Tartu in Estonia. The building is owned by Tartu University, and is on the same street as the university's main building. Von Bock house has a mural of the university's main building on one of its wall ...

which was across the square and was being completed at the same time as the town hall was constructed.Phenomenological Alma Mater. Borders of the Visible and the Invisible in Heritage Protection
Juban Maiste, 2009, p.195, Tartu University, utlib.ee, retrieved 30 December 2013 The town hall is built in an early

Neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

, with

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

and

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

details, such as the steeple containing the

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

(which is still played daily). The town hall shows many stylistic similarities with the somewhat earlier town hall of Narva.

Christmas

Like many town halls in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, for example Rauma,

Porvoo Porvoo (; sv, Borgå ; la, Borgoa) is a city and a municipality in the Uusimaa region of Finland, situated on the southern coast about east of the city border of Helsinki and about from the city centre. Porvoo was one of the six medieval to ...

and

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

,The Declaration of Christmas Peace
City of Turku. Retrieved 9 December 2013.

Christmas Peace Christmas Peace ( fi, joulurauha, sv, julfrid) is a tradition based on old Swedish legislation created by Birger Jarl in the 13th century, extending the tradition of the Peace and Truce of God, Truce of God. Offenders who committed crimes on reli ...

is proclaimed from Tartu's Town Hall just before Christmas.Christmas Peace is Proclaimed
Tartu Postimees.ee, retrieved 26 December 2013

References

External links

* {{Coord, 58, 22, 48, N, 26, 43, 18, E, region:EE, display=title Buildings and structures in Tartu City and town halls in Estonia Tourist attractions in Tartu

History and architecture

Christmas

See also

References

External links