Würzburg, Germany
Posted by: linkys
N 49° 47.602 E 009° 55.698
32U E 566812 N 5516070
The Würzburg City Hall is not a single complex, but a group of buildings that were originally built at different times for different purposes.
Waymark Code: WMHE6P
Location: Bayern, Germany
Date Posted: 06/29/2013
Views: 10
The Würzburg City Hall is not a single complex, but a group of buildings originally built for different purposes and at different times. A municipal Council is first mentioned in 1256 for Würzburg. The citizens were heavily involved in the administration of the city and in 1316 the Mayor and Council acquired Grafeneckart, a visible sign of the bourgeois struggle for independence against the episcopal ruler.
The building was originally the seat of a bishop's official and has a Romanesque tower and the hall of Wenceslas 13 Century, the oldest secular space of the city.
Today the Grafeneckart is the oldest part of the town hall, which has steadily expanded over the centuries. To the west and adjacent to the Grafeneckart , is a late Renaissance style red building of 1659/60, another part is a secularized Carmelite monastery, which in the 19th Century was bought by the City Council.
In the bombing of the 16th March 1945 only the Grafeneckart and the gable front of the red building survived. It was 1949 before the Council could return to its meeting room at the Red building again. "Stronger than death and destruction is our will to live." - This confession on the front door of the hall documented the mindset of those years. The subsequent construction of the Red south wing was not completed until 1986. It is home to the new Council. The monumental frescoes by Wolfgang Lenz at the walls depict important people and events from the history of Würzburg.
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