Stará radnice, Baroque town hall in Moravská Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Stará radnice stands at the southwestern corner of Masaryk Square in Moravská Ostrava, its tower topped by an onion dome with two lanterns added in the Baroque rebuild of 1737–1740. The exterior facades were reworked in Neo-Renaissance style in 1874–1875, and a rear Neo-Renaissance wing was added in 1885 on the site of the former meat stalls.
The first written record of the town hall dates from 1539, though archaeology shows two tavern houses once stood on the site and the building originally had no tower. A city fire in 1556 destroyed the municipal documents; the subsequent rebuild produced a new masonry tower designed by B. Vlach, which long remained unfinished. In 1675, after another fire, the tower gained a balustraded gallery.
The name Stará radnice means Old Town Hall, and the building has housed the Ostrava Museum since 1931; a tourist information centre now shares the space. Visitors can see the remains of 14th-century stone house walls through a glass floor in the ground floor, found during the 2004–2006 reconstruction.
The Stara radnice houses the Ostrava Museum and a tourist information center today, both helpful for visitors with questions. Guided tours and exhibitions offer insight into the building's history and architecture.
A flood mark on a pillar at about 1.7 m recalls the 1880 flood, though it is doubted that the water on the square actually reached that height. During the 2004–2006 renovation, archaeologists found stone house walls from roughly the 14th century, visible through a glass floor on the ground floor.
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