Poznań City Hall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Poznań City Hall is a structure in Poznań that was used as the city's administration building until 1939. The Hall faces east towards the Warta River. Its characteristic loggia is ornately decorated.

Contents 1 History 2 Fresco 3 Other features 4 Internal Description 4.1 Cellars 5 Legend of the Crow King 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit] History

Poznań's Town Hall (Ratusz) was first documented in Latin in 1310 as Domus Consulum.^[1] The building was completed in 1300 during the reign of Wacław II Czeski. It was a one-storey building built upon a raised quadrangle. The cellars remain from this period of construction. Renovations were made in the 15th century. The interior was remodeled between 1504-1508.

Between the arcade columns are paired female allegories to virtues:

• Patience (paciencia), with a lamb and Prudence (prudencia) with a mirror
• Charity (charitas), with two children and Justice (iusticia) with a weight and sword
• Faith (fides), with a chalice and sword and Hope (spes) with a thurible and the sun
• Courage (fortitudo), with a broken column and Temperance (emperancia) pouring water from a vase into a bowl

The last pair is of two famous women from the Ancient World:

• Lucretia (Lucrecia), with a spear through her own breast
• Cleopatra (Cleapairi), with snakes twisted around her arms.

[edit] Fresco

Between the ground and first floors runs a fresco in Latin text serving as a warning to judges

Below the first floor runs a strip of medallions with famous faces from the Ancient World:

• brothers Gaius Gracchus and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
• Lucius Junius Brutus
• Archimedes
• Vitruvius
• Virgilius
• Homer
• Justinian I
• Horace
• Spartacus
• Heraclitus

[edit] Other features

The attic shows a list of rulers of the Jagiełło Dynasty from Władysław II Jagiełło and Jadwiga of Poland to Sigismund II Augustus. In the middle of the parapet there is a small tower with a clock and a mechanism that controls two goats. The current mechanism behind the goats dates from the end of the 20th century. The goats bump heads daily at 12:00 noon.

Below that is the monogram of Stanisław August Poniatowski. A model of an eagle, which survived World War II in hiding, returned to the tower in 1947.

[edit] Internal Description

The town hall currently contains The Poznań Museum of History, a subdivision of The National Museum in Poznań.

[edit] Cellars

These were built between the 13th and 14th centuries. Initially, the cellar consisted of only one large room centered around a column. Subsequently, this was separated into four different rooms.

[edit] Legend of the Crow King

One day Bolko, son of the tower's trumpeter, found a crow whose wing had been shot through. The boy felt pity for the crow, took him to his home and took care of him. One night the boy was awoken by a gnome wearing a crown and purple cape.

The gnome thanked the boy for his kindness and handed him a small gold trumpet. The gnome told the boy to blow it when in danger. After these words he transformed into a crow and flew away. A few years later, when Bolko took the place of his father as the tower's trumpeter, Poznań was attacked by a foreign army.

When the attackers were already climbing up the city walls, the boy remembered the Crow King's present. He ran to the top of the tower and began to play the trumpet. Dark clouds began to gather on the horizon, which turned out to be an enormous murder of crows. They fell upon the attacking army, forcing it into retreat. The golden trumpet was lost as Bolko dropped it due to his astonishment.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Poznań: The Town Hall, retrieved on 2008-06-11.