Helsingborgs rådhus, Neo-Gothic town hall at Stortorget, Helsingborg, Sweden
Helsingborgs rådhus is a four-storey Gothic Revival town hall built of red brick, with a 65-metre clock tower topped by a steep dark pyramidal roof and clock faces. Four corner towers flank the body: round ones facing Stortorget and more angular ones toward Rådhustorget. The roof is mostly slate with copper accents, and the Drottninggatan facade has large pointed-arch painted windows after designs by Gustaf Cederström.
An 1889 architectural competition for a new town hall was won by 26-year-old Alfred Hellerström, who had just graduated from the Royal Academy in Stockholm. The building was constructed between 1892 and 1897. It was declared a listed building in 1967.
The painted windows on Drottninggatan follow designs by Gustaf Cederström and depict scenes from Helsingborg's history. Since 1965 a room in the building has been used for civil weddings, and every day at set times music resembling a carillon is played from the tower, a tradition begun on 21 May 1960.
Access is from Stortorget via a large Baroque-inspired staircase, or through the main entrance on Drottninggatan, where a grand staircase continues inside. The building is a working municipal office, so visitors should expect meetings and staff rather than open sightseeing. The tower music plays at set times daily.
Two memorial stones outside the town hall were raised by Danes and Norwegians. The Danish stone, from 1945, thanks Hälsingborg for giving Danish refugees a refuge and friends; the Norwegian one records that thousands of Norwegian political prisoners passed through the city in spring 1945 on their way home from Nazi camps.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,576 contributors worldwide.