Ljubljana Town Hall: Seat of the City Municipality of Ljubljana
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Slovenia
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Town Hall
On this page8 sections
History
Ljubljana Town Hall is the seat of the City Municipality of Ljubljana in Slovenia. Standing on City Square in the historic center, beneath Castle Hill and near Ljubljana Cathedral, it was begun at its present location in 1484 in the Gothic style and acquired its current exterior chiefly through a Baroque reconstruction between 1717 and 1719.
Medieval municipal government
Ljubljana’s earliest surviving records, dating from 1112 to 1125 and from 1144, do not mention a municipal government, although the settlement probably had a judge. A market judge appears in the records in 1267. A city judge was probably appointed in 1338, and a charter from 1370 records the election of one. By 1504, Ljubljana had the right to elect a mayor.
During the medieval period, some municipal affairs were managed by the komun, a body of twelve male heads of households who held civic rights. The group dealt with municipal matters, including the town hall. Its German designation, Rathaus, gave rise to the Slovenian name Rotovž. By 1472, the city government comprised 100 men.
The location of Ljubljana’s first town hall is unknown. A gathering place called the Komun, or “under the Komun,” probably stood at Tranča from about 1360. After the municipal authorities moved to the present Town Hall, the earlier site was partly vaulted over the road, enlarged, and converted into city prisons. The 1621 earthquake brought its demolition, and a replacement was built over the following two years.
Construction and Baroque rebuilding
The original building at the present site was a long, narrow, two-story Gothic structure set against Castle Hill. It probably followed plans by Peter Bezlaj, a fifteenth-century builder from Carniola, the historical region around Ljubljana. From the late fifteenth century, the building provided an assembly space for the municipality and citizens on the ground floor, while the upper floor contained a municipal council room and courtroom.
As the administration grew, the Town Hall was repeatedly altered. In 1717, the authorities decided to replace it with a new building on the same site. Carlo Martinuzzi’s first model was rejected, after which Gregor Maček the Elder prepared the principal plans while incorporating elements designed by Martinuzzi, an Italian architect associated with the Baroque period. The principal stonemasons were Luka Mislej and Ludvik Bombassi. The new building held its first council session on 22 February 1719.
Later additions and civic memory
At the end of the eighteenth century, Čavlje House was added on the left and Galet House on the right. Alterations in 1895 joined the three houses into one building and modernized it. A new assembly hall followed in 1898, opening during celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph’s reign.
Further changes took place during the Secession, the Central European Art Nouveau movement, and again in 1963 and 1995. The 1995 work redesigned the mayor’s office, a conference room later named the Hribar Room after Ljubljana mayor Ivan Hribar, other rooms, and the large assembly hall on the first floor. The building remains owned by the City Municipality of Ljubljana.
In the 1920s, a monument to King Peter I Karađorđević, the Serbian and first Yugoslav king, stood before the entrance. Jože Plečnik designed it, but Fascist Italian occupation authorities removed and destroyed it in April 1941.
Remains
The surviving Town Hall combines the narrow two-story medieval building with the broader Baroque composition created in 1717 to 1719. Its exterior has Venetian inspiration, while the courtyard contains Renaissance and Baroque elements. Later interventions from the Secession period, 1963, and 1995 remain part of the building’s present architectural fabric.
Facade and entrance architecture
Gregor Maček the Elder is credited with the pediment, the loggia, a roofed gallery open along one or more sides, and the tripartite staircase. Other parts of the exterior followed Carlo Martinuzzi’s designs. A pentagonal turret rises above the front facade on massive columns. It was modeled on the turret of the earlier town hall. The clock bears the dates 1718 and 1928 and originally incorporated a globe showing the phases of the Moon. Its light half and the clock hands were gilded, while a copper knob carrying an iron eagle once crowned the turret. The eagles were later replaced by a weather vane shaped as a dragon, Ljubljana’s symbol.
The facade originally carried statues of Adam and Eve. These sculptures are now displayed in the Ljubljana City Museum. The large assembly hall and the balcony were rebuilt during the Secession period according to plans by Leopold Theyer. The assembly hall was remodeled again in 1963, in work associated with Svetozar Križaj.
Courtyard and fountains
The courtyard has a Renaissance character and includes a Baroque arcaded central atrium decorated with sgraffito, a technique that scratches through contrasting surface layers to reveal the one beneath. In one corner stands the Baroque Narcissus Fountain by Francesco Robba, a sculptor whose major works include fountains and sculpture in Ljubljana. The fountain was brought from Bokalce Castle.
A fountain already stood before the Town Hall in the sixteenth century. In 1751, it was replaced by Robba’s Fountain of the Three Carniolan Rivers. The original is preserved in the National Gallery of Slovenia, while a replica stands outside the Town Hall.
Historic civic space
The narrow Špitalska Street once ran from the Town Hall toward Franciscan Bridge, which is now part of the Triple Bridge. In the medieval period, the area before the building contained a shame cage, a pillory, and sometimes a wooden donkey bench. The shame cage held drunkards and people accused of sexual misconduct. Women accused of adultery or of beating their husbands were made to ride a live donkey, while guards who disobeyed the night watchmaster were made to ride the wooden donkey. Bakers accused of cheating in breadmaking could also be subjected to public dunking.
