Old Town Hall (Bratislava) - History

History

Finished in the Gothic style in the 15th century, it resulted from the joining several buildings: Jacobus' house with a tower, Pawer's house, Unger's house and the Aponyi palace (Slovak: Pawerov dom, Ungerov dom, Aponyiho palác, Hungarian: Pawer ház, Unger ház, Apponyi palota). The principal building adjacent to the tower and facing the Main Square was built by the town Mayor Jacobus II (also called Jakab, Jakub) in the 14th century, while the tower (originally Gothic) was erected in the late 13th century. Towers made of stone were part of some medieval townhouses in order to provide safety in case of war or protection of wealth in case of fire. Although exact date cannot be specified, details of the gothic windows suggest it was built approximately in 1370. The tower's ground floor was one meter lower than today's street level. The tower was reinforced and modified several times over the next centuries, at one point it contained mechanical clock, a large sphere depicting the current phases of the moon and above that there were bells.

The Apponyi Palace was built by Count Juraj Apponyi, a Hungarian nobleman and King's advisor, in place of two older townhouses in 1761 - 1762. The architect is unknown but older literature attributes the project to F. A. Hildebrandt. Only two wings survive from this residential representative town residence - western and the short southern. The ground floor was both residential and used for storage. The staircase included baroque stone sculptures of saints until the 1930s. First floor is the repesentative piano nobile with preserved rococo-classical interior decorations. Second floor was used for the accommodation of the Apponyi family, ceilings are lower here and wall decorations are less elaborate. The attic was used for accommodation from the 18th century until the first half of the 19th century (it was common for visitors to coronations and other major events to sleep in the attics of townhouses and palaces of the noble), today, the wooden booths for sleeping were removed. Until the second half of the 19th century the palace used to have another two wings around a trapezoid-shaped courtyard, used by the servants.

Later, the Old Town Hall underwent many transformations and enhancements, namely a Renaissance style reconstruction in 1599 following earthquake damage, Baroque restyling to the tower after a fire in the 18th century, and the addition of a neorenaissance/neogothic wing built in 1912.