Rathaus, Renaissance town hall in Augsburg, Germany
The Rathaus is a 57-metre-high Renaissance building with a pale cream facade and grey-green stone trim. Its central section rises to a stepped gable topped by a small dark figure, with a square panel bearing a black double-headed eagle on a yellow field below. Two square towers flank it, each capped by a green copper onion dome with a gold finial. The ground floor centres on a round-arched entrance with a balustraded balcony above.
Elias Holl designed this building between 1615 and 1624 as a replacement for an older structure from 1385. The completed building marked a turning point in construction history and demonstrated innovative structural solutions of its time.
The Golden Hall displays elaborate ceiling paintings and wall decorations that reflect the power and wealth of this merchant city. These ornate rooms once served as gathering places for city officials and show how important this building was to the community's identity.
The Lower Fletz, entered through the main portal, leads to two staircases up to the Upper Fletz, which is not generally open to visitors. The Golden Hall, 552 square metres with a 14-metre ceiling, is the room to seek out. The facade faces the Rathausplatz, whose open view dates only from the 1960s clearing of the opposite block.
The two onion domes were not in the original brief: the council wanted a towerless hall, and Elias Holl only won approval for them in 1618, three years after the foundation stone was laid. The gable also carries a copper pine cone, the Zirbelnuss, standing for Augsburg's claimed Roman origin.
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