City Hall, Town hall in Dublin, Ireland
City Hall is an administrative building in Dublin featuring white Portland stone construction with a central rotunda crowned by a large dome supported by twelve columns. The building houses an exhibition about the capital city's development over the centuries.
The building was constructed between 1769 and 1779 as the Royal Exchange before being transformed into a town hall during the 1850s under Dublin Corporation management. This shift marked an important change in how the city's administration was organized.
The building's name changed from Royal Exchange to City Hall on 30 September 1852, at the first council meeting held there. The electoral ward name "Royal Exchange" survives in the Royal Exchange A and B divisions. Frescoes representing the regions of Ireland were added later.
The building faces Dublin Castle across Dame Street, at the southern end of Parliament Street, on a sloping site. The exhibition "Dublin City Hall, The Story of the Capital" is in the vaults, reached by a staircase added in the 1850s from the rotunda to the upper floors. The dome rises 10 feet above twelve columns of 32 feet each.
During the 1916 Easter Rising, the building was occupied by the Irish Citizen Army and played a role in Ireland's independence movement. This event from the early twentieth century remains a significant part of the building's identity today.
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