Town hall in Police nad Metují, Baroque town hall in Police nad Metují, Czech Republic.
The town hall in Police nad Metují is a two-storey corner building at the northern end of Masarykovo Square, house no. 98. Its square-facing front has an arcade and six window axes, with a neo-Gothic tower added in 1876 by builder Vilém Pohl. The gable bears the year of that rebuilding flanked by the town and Bohemian coats of arms; the longer front runs along Kostelní Street, where the courtyard entrance lies.
A wooden cottage stood on this corner of Masaryk Square from the 16th century; in 1717 František Antonín Hradecký, inspector of the Broumov monastery estates, acquired it and had it demolished for a private residence built in 1718, probably designed by Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. The Broumov abbot Otmar Daniel Zinke bought it in 1728, and in spring 1740 the town bought house no. 98 for 4,500 guilders; it became the town hall on 25 October 1740. A fire in 1842 destroyed over thirty houses in the centre including the town hall, which stayed under a temporary roof for decades until the 1876 rebuilding added the Neo-Gothic tower designed by local builder Vilém Pohl.
The building has housed the town administration since 25 October 1740, when the municipality bought house no. 98 from the Broumov monastery for 4,500 guilders. Memorial plaques with the names of local men killed in World War I were placed in the arcade in 1925, and a ceremonial hall has served weddings and civic ceremonies since 1951.
The town hall stands at the northeastern corner of Masarykovo Square, with its main front facing the square and its longer side running along Kostelní Street, where the courtyard entrance is. The arcade along the square front shelters the entrance and the memorial plaques to local men killed in World War I.
The building's front bears the year of the 1876 reconstruction in the middle of the gable, flanked by the town coat of arms of Police nad Metují and the Bohemian lion. The tower added that year was designed by local builder Vilém Pohl.
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