Altes Rathaus
Altes Rathaus
4.5
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- Leipzig Central Station • 10 min walk
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4.5
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periandro
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg10,511 contributions
Dec 2017 • Solo
Das Alte Rathaus (The Old Town Hall) is the nicest non religious building in Leipzig. It was built in 1556 and from an architectural viewpoint it can be considered as a masterpiece of the German Renaissance. In any case, the present shape of the building is essentially the result of the refurbishment works carried out betwixt 1906 and 1909. The architect of the original construction works was the mayor himself, Hieronymus Lotter. The tower, of an octagonal shape, is outstanding on account of its beauty and its fine manufacture. It encompasses four clocks on every other one of its sides, among which that looking into the market. In Lotter’s design it wasn’t foreseen that it should be specifically in the center of the building.
During the fifteenth century enlargement works took place under the rule of Mayor Nikolaus Pistoris: a new room was added and the house of the fabric manufacturer was embodied into the Town Hall. Among other reform works, taking advantage of the level difference between Mark and Naschmarkt an additional storey under the first one was built on the Mark side. Likewise a secret chamber was built under a hall room and the erstwhile chapel.
In 1906 new refurbishment works were effected as a consequence of which the floor of the stated additional storey, which had been placed at about one meter from the Mark level, was removed in order to augment the distance betwixt the Mark level and the storey itself. That modification left enough room for the Hall treasure chamber which is one of the few original parts of the Town Hall still preserved.
The distance between the floor of the storey under the first level was again enlarged on the occasion of the works of 1906 – 1909. It was then possible to install a shop in the ground floor.
In the building concerned there is the Museum of History of the City of Leipzig which can be visited and which houses real marvels worth being beheld. The Hall Chamber, for instance, contains many original pieces of furniture and other equipment elements in their renaissance style. The Hall Chamber was the daily work room of the municipal highest rank officials, the Mayor, the scriveners and others.
The valuable large filing cabinet is located at the same place since 1592. It’s made of oak, nut tree wood, birch, beech, maple and ebony. The Mayor’s chair, made also of oak and nut tree wood dates back to 1607 and on the back it contains the coat of arms of the city of Leipzig.
The Feast Room or Banqueting Room hall is the center of the Alte Rathaus. It’s really attractive owing to its beauty which is actually captivating. Under the timber ceiling, on their beams there aren’t two patterns equal to one another. Nice Flemish crowns hang from them. They were made with the bronze of the former victory monuments in the Market and lit up the hall since 1947.
Particularly interesting is the gallery of the town magistrates’ portraits. It’s an unparalleled element in a German town hall. Above the formers there are also the portraits of the sovereigns in a chronological order. The first of the line is Burchard Berlich, town magistrate since 1632, and the line ends with Johann Wilhelm Wolkmann, town magistrate since 1806. A particular artistic significance ought to be recognized to the pictures by Elias Gottlob Haußmann (1695 - 1774), Anton Graff (1736 - 1813) and Johann Friedrich August Tischbein (1750 - 1812).
As regards the pictures of the Saxon sovereigns there are, with a few exceptions, those depicting the princes of the Albertinian lineage. In 1553 the Leipzig Town Hall commissioned the painter Hans Krell more than twenty portraits of the princes from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and their wives, as well as of some German Kaisers and ancient monarchs. It’s indeed an excellent decoration for the then new Town Hall. The portrait of the Prince Augustus (1526 - 1586) is the last one painted by Krell. Afterwards, on the occasion of homage some other portraits of the new sovereigns were added until the line was completed. Unfortunately, as time passed by, many paintings were damaged, broken or just disappeared. After 1733, upon the reconstruction of the Feast Romm they were removed and laid in the loft of the Gewandhaus (garment house). The first members of The Verein für di Geschichte Leipzigs (Union of the History of Leipzig) brought them in 1868 again to the daylight.
On the wall opposite to that where the stated pictures are placed there are on the window niches gothic and renaissance columns which are worth being contemplated. They were fortunately saved from destruction upon renovation or demolition of some buildings. The porphyry consoles are also very nice.
The Museum of History of the City of Leipzig is a complete, uninterrupted and permanent exhibition of the history of the city enabled by the architectural characteristics of the relevant historical rooms. The beholding of such exhibition elements offers one the possibility to get an insight on the development of the city concerned. Depictions of the stages and important themes on the aforesaid history are grouped in the Feast Room and the Town Hall Chamber from the beginning to the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On the upper storey one can get to know about the most relevant events occurred from the nineteenth century, through the modernism to the present time.
Some aspects of the stated exhibition are “Leipzig in the Middle Ages”, “Church and University in the late Middle Ages”, “The paintings from St. Nicholas church”, “The City and the Reformation in the sixteenth century and the beginning of the typography”, “The Art in the Reformation time”, “The Leipzig fairs from the 15th century to the 18th century”, “The baroque city”, “The history of the Alterathaus”, “War and Peace”, “Leipzig Guilds” and “Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig”. In the Feast Room valuable items concerning the Leipzig Law History are displayed. Interesting coins and medals are in the glass cupboards which are below the windows. In the Town Hall Chamber the city treasure can be contemplated. The prison cells have been reproduced in the basements. The sight of the torture tools used in the Middle Ages which can be seen there is a terrible one actually causing shivering. Moreover, an insight into the legal terminology of past times may also be apprehended.
In the domain of painting there are superb marvels in that Museum, such as the gothic ones: “Christ in the Cross with Maria, Johan, Saint Pancras and St. Dorothea”, “The Coronation of Mary, accompanied by Saints Catherine and Barbara and a donor”, both from the fifteenth century; “The Crucifixion of Christ” by a painter of the Lucas Cranach des Älteren School; and the portraits of Ludwig and of Rosalie Wagner by Wilhelm Stockmann. As far as sculpture is concerned, “The mourning of the dead Christ by his mother“, carved around 1490/1500, is of a great beauty. In order to contemplate those masterpieces and many others existing in that Museum the visit thereto is therefore a must while in Leipzig.
During the fifteenth century enlargement works took place under the rule of Mayor Nikolaus Pistoris: a new room was added and the house of the fabric manufacturer was embodied into the Town Hall. Among other reform works, taking advantage of the level difference between Mark and Naschmarkt an additional storey under the first one was built on the Mark side. Likewise a secret chamber was built under a hall room and the erstwhile chapel.
In 1906 new refurbishment works were effected as a consequence of which the floor of the stated additional storey, which had been placed at about one meter from the Mark level, was removed in order to augment the distance betwixt the Mark level and the storey itself. That modification left enough room for the Hall treasure chamber which is one of the few original parts of the Town Hall still preserved.
The distance between the floor of the storey under the first level was again enlarged on the occasion of the works of 1906 – 1909. It was then possible to install a shop in the ground floor.
In the building concerned there is the Museum of History of the City of Leipzig which can be visited and which houses real marvels worth being beheld. The Hall Chamber, for instance, contains many original pieces of furniture and other equipment elements in their renaissance style. The Hall Chamber was the daily work room of the municipal highest rank officials, the Mayor, the scriveners and others.
The valuable large filing cabinet is located at the same place since 1592. It’s made of oak, nut tree wood, birch, beech, maple and ebony. The Mayor’s chair, made also of oak and nut tree wood dates back to 1607 and on the back it contains the coat of arms of the city of Leipzig.
The Feast Room or Banqueting Room hall is the center of the Alte Rathaus. It’s really attractive owing to its beauty which is actually captivating. Under the timber ceiling, on their beams there aren’t two patterns equal to one another. Nice Flemish crowns hang from them. They were made with the bronze of the former victory monuments in the Market and lit up the hall since 1947.
Particularly interesting is the gallery of the town magistrates’ portraits. It’s an unparalleled element in a German town hall. Above the formers there are also the portraits of the sovereigns in a chronological order. The first of the line is Burchard Berlich, town magistrate since 1632, and the line ends with Johann Wilhelm Wolkmann, town magistrate since 1806. A particular artistic significance ought to be recognized to the pictures by Elias Gottlob Haußmann (1695 - 1774), Anton Graff (1736 - 1813) and Johann Friedrich August Tischbein (1750 - 1812).
As regards the pictures of the Saxon sovereigns there are, with a few exceptions, those depicting the princes of the Albertinian lineage. In 1553 the Leipzig Town Hall commissioned the painter Hans Krell more than twenty portraits of the princes from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and their wives, as well as of some German Kaisers and ancient monarchs. It’s indeed an excellent decoration for the then new Town Hall. The portrait of the Prince Augustus (1526 - 1586) is the last one painted by Krell. Afterwards, on the occasion of homage some other portraits of the new sovereigns were added until the line was completed. Unfortunately, as time passed by, many paintings were damaged, broken or just disappeared. After 1733, upon the reconstruction of the Feast Romm they were removed and laid in the loft of the Gewandhaus (garment house). The first members of The Verein für di Geschichte Leipzigs (Union of the History of Leipzig) brought them in 1868 again to the daylight.
On the wall opposite to that where the stated pictures are placed there are on the window niches gothic and renaissance columns which are worth being contemplated. They were fortunately saved from destruction upon renovation or demolition of some buildings. The porphyry consoles are also very nice.
The Museum of History of the City of Leipzig is a complete, uninterrupted and permanent exhibition of the history of the city enabled by the architectural characteristics of the relevant historical rooms. The beholding of such exhibition elements offers one the possibility to get an insight on the development of the city concerned. Depictions of the stages and important themes on the aforesaid history are grouped in the Feast Room and the Town Hall Chamber from the beginning to the Congress of Vienna in 1815. On the upper storey one can get to know about the most relevant events occurred from the nineteenth century, through the modernism to the present time.
Some aspects of the stated exhibition are “Leipzig in the Middle Ages”, “Church and University in the late Middle Ages”, “The paintings from St. Nicholas church”, “The City and the Reformation in the sixteenth century and the beginning of the typography”, “The Art in the Reformation time”, “The Leipzig fairs from the 15th century to the 18th century”, “The baroque city”, “The history of the Alterathaus”, “War and Peace”, “Leipzig Guilds” and “Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig”. In the Feast Room valuable items concerning the Leipzig Law History are displayed. Interesting coins and medals are in the glass cupboards which are below the windows. In the Town Hall Chamber the city treasure can be contemplated. The prison cells have been reproduced in the basements. The sight of the torture tools used in the Middle Ages which can be seen there is a terrible one actually causing shivering. Moreover, an insight into the legal terminology of past times may also be apprehended.
In the domain of painting there are superb marvels in that Museum, such as the gothic ones: “Christ in the Cross with Maria, Johan, Saint Pancras and St. Dorothea”, “The Coronation of Mary, accompanied by Saints Catherine and Barbara and a donor”, both from the fifteenth century; “The Crucifixion of Christ” by a painter of the Lucas Cranach des Älteren School; and the portraits of Ludwig and of Rosalie Wagner by Wilhelm Stockmann. As far as sculpture is concerned, “The mourning of the dead Christ by his mother“, carved around 1490/1500, is of a great beauty. In order to contemplate those masterpieces and many others existing in that Museum the visit thereto is therefore a must while in Leipzig.
Written 10 June 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Vegan Luggage
Tatabanya, Hungary279 contributions
Dec 2019 • Couples
What a beautiful old town square with a magical christmas market. Lots of little cabins with lovely things to buy. It was packed with people but the buildings made the ambience like in an old children's tale.
Written 27 December 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
scouse1941
806 contributions
Dec 2019
The Old Town Hall square was absolutely packed. This was one of the main Christmas Market locations. Actually, the whole of the central pedestrian area of the city was one big Christmas Market.
This was another location that that 'Prince guy' had blocked off when I was here in May. He got the 'Royal' treatment.
The architecture of the Altes Rathaus really does enhance the theme. It dominates the square and it just adds to the pleasure of wandering around. The mix of 'modern' electronic Christmas wares along side those of the traditional wooden crafts bridges the centuries.
It is a great place. The 'platz' is also the location for a great Bach/Jazz night; combination of his contemporary architecture as backdrop for great improvisation.
This was another location that that 'Prince guy' had blocked off when I was here in May. He got the 'Royal' treatment.
The architecture of the Altes Rathaus really does enhance the theme. It dominates the square and it just adds to the pleasure of wandering around. The mix of 'modern' electronic Christmas wares along side those of the traditional wooden crafts bridges the centuries.
It is a great place. The 'platz' is also the location for a great Bach/Jazz night; combination of his contemporary architecture as backdrop for great improvisation.
Written 24 December 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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