Świebodzin Town Hall

Every day at noon, the town bugle call composed by Edmund Wilgocki sounds from the tower of Świebodzin's town hall. The building stands in the very middle of the market square, and its pale, striped façade with battlements looks like a castle gate. Behind it lies a structure far older than its 19th-century costume suggests, and a museum showing how this town of clothmakers and brewers made its living.

History: from a timber council house to revival style

The first town hall was built in the centre of the square at the end of the 14th century, probably in timber. It burned in the great town fire of 1541, after which a two-storey masonry building with two towers was erected. The northern tower was pulled down in 1827, and in the 19th century the whole façade was reworked in forms echoing the Gothic and the Renaissance, with battlements crowning the tower. That is the look you recognise from every corner of the square today. The town hall is a listed monument and remains the seat of the town authorities, not just a museum.

What to see inside

The oldest parts survive in the cellars: stone barrel vaults and brick rib and star vaults, which also appear in several ground-floor rooms. Since 1971 the building has housed the Regional Museum, which occupies six rooms. Its two permanent exhibitions are:

• "Nature of the Lubusz Land" – the region's flora and fauna,
• "History of the Town and Region" – from the Middle Ages to post-war reconstruction, with militaria, coins, old maps, objects from the cloth and brewing trades, and sculpture and painting.

Since 1986 visitors have been able to climb the tower for a panorama of Świebodzin. The town hall also houses the registry office and the town council.

Did you know?

This is not the town's first museum: from 1903 to 1945 there was a municipal collection, turned into a Local Museum in the 1930s. It was dispersed during the war, and today's museum was built up from scratch on the initiative of a local friends' society. Part of it is devoted to the writer Eberhard Hilscher, who was connected with Świebodzin.

Tripto tip

Time your visit to be on the square at 12:00 for the bugle call. The museum is open all year and charges admission; check current hours and prices, including for the tower, on the museum's website. An hour is enough for the exhibitions and the tower. The town hall is a good starting point for a walk: two minutes away is the Gothic Church of St Michael the Archangel, and a few hundred metres east a surviving stretch of the town walls with a tower.