Old Cloth Hall - Mechelen Town Hall

Mechelen actually has three town halls: the old Schepenhuis, Huis De Beyaert and the current town hall. Behind the latter you also have the administrative center called 'Huis van de Mechelaar'. But to return to the current town hall on the Grote Markt, it consists of two parts: the cloth hall with unfinished bell tower and the Palace of the Grand Council. Why was the belfry never finished? The cloth trade fell into decline in the fourteenth century and there was no money to complete the building. For two hundred years, the belfry was no more than a construction, until it was finally provided with a temporary roof in the sixteenth century. Temporary? That roof is still there. The belfry is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To the right of it you can see the oldest part of the town hall, the remains of the former cloth hall. On the left is the Palace of the Great Council. The big advice? It never actually came together here, because this wing was only built in the twentieth century according to the original sixteenth-century plans of the then famous architect Rombout Keldermans.TIP! The interior of the town hall is worth seeing. You can visit it in the company of a guide during the historical city walk.
visit.mechelen.be/nl/stadhuis

A town hall usually serves as a meeting point with the citizen or inhabitants. The Town Hall of Mechelen consists of three parts, Keldermans Wing or the Palace of the Grand Council, Belfry and Cloth Hall. Since 1914, these buildings officially serve as City Hall.

A town hall from two eras.
A tumultuous history of this building begins in the early 14th century with the construction of a Cloth Hall. The right part should have a belfry tower, but unfortunately due to lack of money it was never completed. The left part was built as the Palace of the Great Council. This wing was not finished until the 20th century according to plans from the 16th century.