Pl. Rynok, 01 – The City Hall building

In the late eighteenth century the old town hall, which had not once been extended and reconstructed in the course of the ages, was in an emergency condition. In 1801 it was necessary to dismantle a part of the building owing to a threat of collapse. After this the Austrian administration of Lviv initiated drawing up projects of a new building to replace the ruin (Jaworski, 1907, 13, 68-70; Вуйцик, 1991, 29).

Some relevant architectural plans of the 1820s have been preserved in the archives; the documents are signed by the officials who processed them: Anton Marischler, Fr. Christan and Anton Steinkeller (CDIAL 742/1/1414:1-6; 1416:1-3; 1417:1; 1418:1-2). These projects included the addition of a new building to the old tower which remained from the old town hall and was octagonal in plan. That tower was built by constructor Andreas Bemer in the early seventeenth century, under burgomaster Marcin Kampian (Łoziński, 1901, 96; Вуйцик, 1991, 29). This project, however, was never to be realized as on 14 July 1826, late in the afternoon, the Kampian tower suddenly collapsed. As Franciszek Jaworski reports, the collapse was caused by a weakening of the tower foundations that happened at the very moment when an official technical commission had just finished to inspect the building and was on the spot making out a report concluding that the tower was in a satisfactory condition. Eight persons were killed in this accident under the wreckage of the tower (Jaworski, 1907, 70-73).

After this tragic accident the project of a new city hall was altered radically. In its ultimate version, it envisaged not only the construction of a completely new tower, but also doubling the building size due to using the adjoining territory of the "mid-Rynok" quarter, with the plots of eleven old small stone houses and an alley of "rich shops" in the north as well as a guardhouse situated to the east from the city hall (Jaworski, 1907, 51-53; Капраль, 2003, map 1).

In most cases, a great architectural and construction project like that of a new city hall in Lviv is developed by a group of authors. Consequently, it often happens that different researchers indicate different names of the project authors. Thus, Franciszek Jaworski, the author of a detailed monograph on the Lviv city hall, attributes the authorship of its project to two persons, namely, Joseph Markl, an official of the "construction administration", and Franz Trescher, a town constructor (Jaworski, 1907, 76). There are personal signatures of Markl on some plans preserved in the archives (CDIAL 742/1/1426:1-3; 1427:1-4).

Later, however, Tadeusz Mańkowski, a well-known Lviv researcher, included two other officials of the "construction administration", architects Jerzy Glogowski and Alois Wondraszka, in the co-authors' group. Referring to a 1836 Vienna publication, Mańkowski asserted: "There is some other information… which is closer to the truth: Markl, together with Alois Wondraszka and under the management of Jerzy Glogowski, took part in the construction of the Lviv city hall and its tower in the period between 1828 and 1835" (Mańkowski, 1923, 13). Indeed, we can see Glogowski’s signatures on the architectural plans of the new city hall too (CDIAL 742/1/1422:1-2; 1423:1; 1424:1).

Summarizing the previous attributions, Volodymyr Vuitsyk included all the mentioned above architects, Wondraszka, Markl, Trescher, and Glogowski, in the group of the new city hall building co-authors (Вуйцик, 1991, 29).

After the project was approved, the construction works were started. The cornerstone was solemnly consecrated on 21 October 1827. The construction lasted then for eight years. Initially, the southern section of the building with the main façade was built. Later, the works on the northern ground were started where the last "mid-Rynok" houses were being gradually dismantled ("…some of those houses were still there in approximately 1830, when the front part of the new city hall had already been constructed"). The new city hall was consecrated on 2 October 1835 (Jaworski, 1907, 69-70, 76, 80).

However, not a long time later, after the revolutionary events of 1848, the newly constructed building required a large-scale reconstruction. In Lviv, the revolution was finished with a bombardment conducted by the Austrian army under the command of general Wilhelm Friedrich von Hammerstein on 2 November 1848. Several shells hit the building in the morning of that day, and "a huge column of smoke rose over the city hall from the side of the pass-through Andreolli house and Krakivska street" (Jaworski, 1907, 83). The citizens succeeded in extinguishing the fire only on 8 November due to the resolute measures coordinated by Johann Salzmann, the city construction inspector. The following reconstruction was carried out in 1849-1851 under a project designed by the same Salzmann; the works were managed by Wilhelm Schmidt, a constructor.

Johann Salzmann made some noticeable changes in the architecture of the building which was being reconstructed. In particular, the architect decided not to renew the cupola over the tower, which was finally given a flat top with an observation terrace. The terraced attics on the façades were replaced by triangular pediments. Instead of the damaged clock on the tower, a new one was installed; it was brought from Wilhelm Stiele's factory situated near Vienna (Jaworski, 1907, 93).

The building number 1 on the Rynok square in Lviv was not once criticized later as a monument of Habsburg bureaucratic architecture. The city authorities were even considering some projects of reconstructing it radically which, fortunately, were never realized. In the interwar period the assembly hall was reconstructed, a reinforced concrete bridging was made there. In 1881, in honour of the Emperor, Franz Joseph I, who was visiting Lviv, the main entrance to the city hall was decorated with an allegoric sculptural group made by Leonard Marconi, which has not been preserved (DALO 2/4/1154:129-130). Now the central entrance is flanked with sculptures of lions with shields made by Yevhen Dzyndra, a sculptor, in 1940.

The new Lviv city hall witnessed a lot of historical events. Though in modern times the center of Lviv’s urban life has shifted from the Rynok square westward, to the vicinity of the so-called Hetman Ramparts, this building has always been and still remains one of the most expressive symbols of the city and the seat of the municipal authorities.