The first thing you'll probably notice about the Town Hall (Ratusz) is that it seems to be patched together from bits and pieces of a dozen different buildings, and in many ways it was. Construction began in the end of the 13th century and continued - through all the changing political and artistic forces - for about 250 years. The Town Hall was the centre of city life up until the early 20th century, housing the Town Council, merchants' stalls and - most importantly - a beer cellar. The building escaped relatively unscathed after World War II (an estimated 10% was damaged). After reconstruction work, it was re-opened as the Museum of City-Dwellers' Art (Muzeum Sztuki Mieszczańskiej). Inside you can see the remarkable Gothic interiors and a collection of silver and other city artefacts. In the Treasury room, look for the new flower-shaped decorative keystones which replaced Nazi symbols installed during World War II. The most fun part of the Town Hall to explore is the elaborate exterior decoration. See if you can find scenes from Aesop's fables, or grotesque scenes of medieval pub life. Note that exhibits are poorly marked, there are few signs and finding your way around can be a bit of a stab in the dark.

Admission 10/7zł, Wed free.

Town Hall, Museum of City Art comments Add Yours

• Frederic - Paris 21 May 2011
  The outside of the Town Hall is very interesting but beware you should be very disappointed by visiting the inside (and the fact is that there were very few people who were visiting the inside on a sunday afternoon of May when I went there)... Some furniture some objects of poor interest... the most interesting is the inner architecture but I'm not sure it's worth the visit for a normal tourist from western Europe (maybe the americans are not used to such buildings...).To sum up you can avoid this museum except if you're very fond of architecture.
• billy bob - kantucky 11 February 2009
  io thinmk it ws good info bur not enought info for my projerct