The Town Hall at Parchim, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany.
Structurally, the bulk of Parchim's town hall dates back to the 14th century – it was only as a consequece of renovations carried out in 1818 by royal chartered builder Barca. that the building gained its present look. In fact, Barca's renovations were so comprehensive that contemporaries described the town hall as "a new building". The jointed, three-sided ornamental gables which had adorned the city hall on the market side had already been pulled down a couple of years before the renovation, having fallen into disrepaire; today, the side of the building that faces the Waagestraße has preserved its original appearance – here, the facade features a stepped gable and five-fold panelling. The town hall's cellar has also largely maintained its medieval aesthetic, with rib vaults supported in the middle of the room by massive mortar octagonal pillars. Today, the Gothic town hall cellar seems folorn and abandoned due to the comprehesiveness of Barca's transformation of the rest of the building. His renovations saw the insertion of a middle floor between the ground floor and the top floor; the window apertures were also altered in the renovations, as can be easily recognised by visitors, who'll note the colour differences in the masonry used to construct the middle floor of the town hall. Barca also installed an impressive portal on the church side of the building. The fact that the renovations date to the early nineteenth century means that art historians consider the Parchim town hall to be the oldest Neo-Gothic building in Germany. The town hall's clock, installed on the side of the building facing to the old market was attached in 1869, and was designed to serve as the town's official time-keeper; in 1930, it was relocated from the middle to the right side of the building's facade.
Size: 4287px × 2848px
Location: Parchim, Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania, Germany.
Photo credit: © David Davies / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: architecture, brick, buildings, bundeslaender, bundeslander, city, ddr, east, europe, european, gdr, german, germany, gothic, ground, hall, historic, kreisstadt, mecklenburg, municipal, parchim, public, rathaus, states, town, towns, travel
