CULTURE

Town Hall The most ...

- The most outstanding Renaissance building in Poland.
- The most beautiful Renaissance Hall in Central Europe (north of the Alps). In its original shape it dates from 1555. A place of assembly of the City Council.
- The Renaissance Hall houses the most interesting exposition of marble busts of Roman emperors. The exhibition comprises a former collection of Cardinal de Polignac. In 1712 the collection was purchased in France by Frederick II for the Sanssouci palace. In 1911 it was transported to the Prussian castle in Poznań (today's "Castle" Cultural Centre). After World War II it was incorporated into the collection of the National Museum.
- The Town Hall houses the youngest museum of a city in Poland, which was established in 1954.
- The most precious cartographic exhibit in the Museum of the History of Poznań is a globe with a map of the world. Commissioned by Cardinal Cesar d'Esties for the Cosmographic Academy of Argonauts, it was manufactured in Venice in 1688 by an outstanding cartographer Vincenzo Coroneill and dedicated by the author to the then doge of the First Republic of Venice Francesko Morostini. A beautiful metal frame was made in Paris in the studio of a manufacturer of mathematical instruments, Gateiler, in 1697.
- The biggest painting in the Museum of the History of Poznań is an enormous canvas by Juliusz Knorr depicting the Poznań Market Square in 1838.
- The oldest table clock in Poland is a Renaissance clock in a gold-plated bronze frame with the Poznań coat of arms on it. This masterpiece was manufactured by a watchmaker Jan Stall in 1580.
- The oldest exhibited Poznań seals can be seen at the document of the City Council of 1344.
- The  oldest  view  of  the  city  of  Poznań  comes  from  the  work  by Braunn- Hogenberg "Civitates Orbis Terrarum" published in Cologne in 1618.
- The oldest part of the edifice are Gothic cellars.
- The darkest part is the Torture Chamber.
- The earliest preserved furnishings of the Town Hall feature the painting entitled "Crucifixion" placed in the Royal Hall over the portal from 1536.
- The highest point of the Town Hall is the tower with the Stanislav's eagle (approximately 61 meters high).
- The most unruly animals in the Town Hall are goats.  There is a special clock mechanism with goats in the central turret of the attic. First such mechanism was installed in 1551 by Bartłomiej of Gubin. The present mechanism comes from 1954. Every day at noon goats begin their show.

Jędrzej Stefan Płaczkowski