A Neo-Gothic brick town hall on the Old Town market square, built from 1829 to a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel on the site of a town hall destroyed in 1807.
The Town Hall in Kołobrzeg is a Neo-Gothic building of light red brick, standing in the middle of the Old Town market square, at Ratuszowy Square. It was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and construction began in 1829 on the site of a medieval town hall destroyed in 1807 during the siege of the town. It looks like a small castle: it has battlements, turrets at the corners and a clock tower on the axis of the façade.
The town was chartered in 1255, and a new town hall in the middle of the market square was built in the second half of the 14th century; it was first mentioned in 1364. In the 15th century it was extended, and in 1538 a customs chamber was added, so the building had four wings around a courtyard. It was destroyed by the Thirty Years' War, then rebuilt on the orders of the Elector of Brandenburg. During the French siege in 1807 a shell hit the room of the town weigh house, and a fire consumed the western and southern parts of the building. Rebuilding was judged unprofitable and in 1826 it was decided to demolish the surviving walls.
The decision to build a new town hall to Schinkel's design was taken in 1828. The foundation stone was laid on 2 July 1829; construction was directed first by Ernst Friedrich Zwirner and from the end of 1830 by Pelizaeus. According to the National Heritage Board of Poland, the work was finished on 30 March 1831, while the heritage register and Wikipedia give the dating 1829 to 1832. One corner and the cellars of the old town hall were preserved.
The building consists of a main body and two side wings, which enclose a courtyard situated higher than its surroundings, reached by steps. The façades are crowned with battlements, and the ground-floor openings have pointed arches. Above the main portal are a balcony, the national and town coats of arms and a clock face. The historic clock was taken down in 2014 and is shown in the Kołobrzeg Museum “Patria Colbergiensis”.
On the north-eastern side, among the pillars, a 16th-century pillory known as the Adebar Column is set into the wall. On its capital is a carved mask, which legend links with the Kołobrzeg reeve Jakub Adebar. In the courtyard, until the Second World War, stood a monument to King Frederick William III, erected in 1865, the work of the sculptor Friedrich Drake.
In 1912 a general rebuilding of the interiors began under the direction of the city architect H. Göbel, and in 1913 and 1914 a staircase with a pavilion was added on the north side, through which the cellars can be entered from outside. In the cellars the hall of the former wine cellar has been preserved, with a star vault supported on two columns; today it houses a music café. Above it is the council chamber with decoration from 1912 and 1913, and on the first floor the mayor's office with Neo-Baroque stucco and a fireplace.
In April 1945 the town hall was one of the few buildings in Kołobrzeg that survived the battle for the town undamaged. Today the building houses the Civil Registry Office, the Gallery of Contemporary Art and the Tourist Information Office, and in the cellar a café and a music club.
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