Old Town Hall Leipzig

The front of the old town hall in Leipzig is opposite the main entrance to the Mädlerpassage and is a beautiful Renaissance building. It is also the landmark backdrop for the famous Leipzig Christmas market.The first town hall building on this site dates back to the 14th century. The building was designed from 1556 by Hieronymus Lotter, then mayor of Leipzig, also well known as the architect of the Saxon Elector August for his hunting lodge Augustusburg near Chemnitz.

The old town hall of Leipzig is located on the east side of the market and is one of the most important buildings of the Saxon Renaissance. In the periphery of the old town hall, life has always been in the center of the city and the old walls are witnesses and silent observers of the city's lively history. The venerable building was erected in the middle of the 14th century, because the wealthy citizens of Leipzig wanted to create a place that was appropriate for the various functions regulating urban life in the growing trading city.

In 1341, Margrave Friedrich II of Meissen gave the cloth makers of Leipzig a representative building south of the market square that was probably built at the end of the 13th century in the Romanesque style. In terms of location and floor area, this building roughly corresponds to today's council chamber of the old town hall. It can be assumed that the city council already performed its duties here. A Leipzig town hall was first mentioned in documents in 1360. Due to the growth of Leipzig and the resulting additional tasks of the city council, extensions were made to the north side of the cloth house. The first two new buildings that reach up to today's passage were built on the foundations of previous buildings, which also explains the "kink" in the longitudinal facade of the town hall of about three degrees between the first and second gable from the right.

In the middle of the 15th century it was merged with two other buildings north of today's passage. In December 1467 a new council chamber was completed. The overbuilding of the passage with a stair tower and thus the final merging of the individual buildings cannot be precisely verified. A stair tower was first mentioned in 1476. The cloth makers moved into their own building in 1482. A year later, a secret chamber was created, which represents a kind of mezzanine and can be visited today as the aerar (treasury). In 1498, because trade was flourishing at the time, it was decided to remodel the town hall, which then became financially impossible.

Oldest view of the old town hall from 1547

Old Town Hall, 1672

The Leipzig market square with the old town hall, 1712

There were fundamental structural changes up until the middle of the 16th century. The town hall was widened by around four meters towards the Naschmarkt, along with an enlargement and elevation of the roof. The town hall was rebuilt in 1556/57 by the governing mayor and merchant Hieronymus Lotter and thus largely received its present-day appearance in the style of the Saxon Renaissance. The first master was Paul Speck, to whom the design is probably also to be ascribed. After his death in early 1557 he was succeeded by Master Paul Widemann. The town's master mason, Parakeet Pfretzschner, was also involved.

Source: Wikipedia