Szczecin City Hall

The building at Szymanowskiego 2 in Szczecin was erected in 1924-1927 as the seat of the authorities of the Province of Pomerania, and today houses the City Hall. The designer and contractor was Dr Eng. Georg Steinmetz. The building is entered in the heritage register and has survived almost unchanged.

The provincial building

The decision to build a new seat was taken by the Diet of the Province of Pomerania on 17 March 1921. From the start a complex of administrative buildings was planned here, linked by a line of sight with the park to the north and the buildings of the centre to the south. The land was bought from the commercial councillor Martin Quistorp, the building permit was issued on 31 May 1923, and work began on 5 June 1924. The central building went up first, the east wing in 1925, the west wing a year later, and in 1927 the remaining parts and the inner courtyard were completed, after which the new seat was solemnly consecrated.

Form and details

The main buildings surround a quadrangular courtyard, open towards the avenue leading to the centre. In the eastern part there are two courtyards, one of which was built over with a hall with overhead lighting, now used to serve the public. A representative two-flight staircase leads to the upper floors, and on the second floor there is a library. Above the gateways of the main wing are four bas-relief coats of arms of the main towns of the province: Szczecin, Koszalin, Greifswald and Stralsund. The left wing held the main meeting chambers, including a hall panelled in walnut wood, in which until 2014 the Szczecin Philharmonic was housed.

The green facade

Originally the whole building was covered with green plaster, which is why in German times it was called the Spinach Palace. Left unrenovated after the war, the facade faded to a grey-green shade. The green colour was restored during the renovation of the facade in 2012-2017, and with it the unofficial name returned. The cartouche with the coat of arms of the former Province of Pomerania was also restored then.

A place in the city's history

On 17 December 1970, during the events of December 1970, a crowd tried to seize and set fire to the City National Council housed here. The central building was damaged then: the windows on the ground and first floors were smashed and rooms were set on fire, and traces of smoke above the windows could be seen for a long time after the events. Several commemorative plaques were placed on the walls of the building after the war, among others for the first president of Szczecin, Piotr Zaremba, the last commander-in-chief of the Home Army, Leopold Okulicki, the conductor Walerian Pawłowski and the politician Stanisław Mikołajczyk.

Practical information

• Address: ulica Karola Szymanowskiego 2, Szczecin, Śródmieście-Północ.
• The building is a working office, so it is visited mainly from outside; access to the interiors depends on the office's working hours, which you can check on its website.
• Next door, about 100 m away, is the Philharmonic.