Description

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The town hall Wernigerode is the town hall of the town of Wernigerode in Saxony-Anhalt. The town hall was built around 1420 by count Heinrich as the play house of count (Spelhus) above the wine cellar. An inscription in the coat of arms above the main portal refers to this. The building was then donated by Count Heinrich to the town of Wernigerode in 1427. The city also used it as a playhouse. Games took place here for the carnival, and it also served as a trading and courtroom. In the years 1494 to 1498, the striking half-timbered building, which still stands today, was built with two slender bay windows flanking the entrance. The bay windows rest on free-standing stands and towers above the eaves of the house. The wooden frame of the top floor protrudes about 50 centimeters above the massive basement floor. It is made of mighty beams. Unlike the emphasis on the vertical through the towers, there is a horizontal division through a dense row of curved St. Andrew’s crosses. They are bordered to the top by a strong chest beam. The building was completed after an inscription on the doorstep of master carpenter Thomas Hilleborch. Inside a hall was built that was used as a party hall for the citizens. The design of the half-timbered façade was in the Lower Saxon style, but also showed characteristics of the Frankish – Hessian design.

During the city fire of the year 1528, the old nearby town hall was destroyed. The city of Wernigerode then bought the Klint, the current western side of the town hall. They also acquired the house built by the Ackerbürger family and the Schierstedt family, built in 1455-1456. In the years 1539-1544 these houses were rebuilt together with the playhouse into the current stand house. The conversion was performed by Simon Hilleborch. The Schierstedt estate was transformed into a council chamber, the so-called Waaghaus. The high ground floor of the Waaghaus is built of rubble and has a low, load-bearing wooden floor on the upper floor. A fundamental reconstruction of the town hall took place between 1873 and 1875, with expediency considerations taking precedence. The conversion was later seen as a mistake and from 1906 it was gradually reversed. Extensive conversion and expansion work was carried out between 1936 and 1939.Among other things, they have removed the offices in the old ballroom and brought the hall back to its original size. The east wing was fixed in 1873-1875 in massive construction and was newly constructed in timber frame construction and used for the Sparkasse.

The basement of the building is still used today as a Ratskeller. It consists of a main room with a rectangular floor plan. It is spanned by a groin vault that rests on two strong middle posts. There are also two small storage rooms with barrel vaults. In 1948 the painter Bert Heller created a wall painting called Harzsagen in the Ratskeller, which has not been preserved.

Supposedly, the ground floor of the town hall was originally structured as the basement. However, only the outer walls that were built with rubble have been preserved. In the lower level above the market level is accessed via a double barrel, between the two bay scale stairs that was renewed in 1741

Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathaus_Wernigerode