OLOMOUC IN TWO SHADES

The Town Hall

The two-storey, four-wing building with an oblong courtyard and a square 76m high tower is one of the symbols of Olomouc. The town hall was completed before 1444 as a continuation of an old merchant house from the 14th century. Late-Gothic reconstruction after 1474 saw the building of the chapel of St Hieronymus, containing the earliest example of a rib vault in Moravia and Bohemia. The first written record of the astronomical clock is from 1519. Renaissance reconstruction added the portal and decorated loggia to the front façade. The façade is Baroque but its northern part is Neo-Gothic, dating from 1903-1904. The building was damaged in 1945. The astronomical clock was completely rebuilt in 1955 following the design of Karel Svolinský.

  Tirya 2013