"According to the historians, the first building of the City Hall in Vilnius appeared with the start of the effect of the Magdeburg Law and with the formation of the self-government of the city-dwellers. The oldest City Hall (mentioned in 1432) stood at the same place where it is standing now. It was equipped with the rooms for the sessions, the halls of the court, the room for the community of the traders, treasury, office, archive, premises for measuring, supplies of corn, storeroom of weapons, and the prison in the cellars. The foundations of the first City Hall remained up to the present times prove that the building was Gothic-style. In the course of history, Vilnius City Hall was rebuilt and reconstructed – the City was devastated by the fires, the city-dwellers sought to decorate and improve the main symbol of the self-government. E.g. in 1662, the city clock was installed in the tower of the City Hall, the open gallery was equipped, where the orchestra played during the holidays; in 1680, during the repair, the exterior of the building was decorated with the sculptures of angels; in 1725, the new clock with the gold-plated figures was lifted into the tower, the building was covered with the tile roof, the cornices of which were decorated with the copper tin.
In 1749, the fire of the City did harm to the City Hall, too. The Architect J. Ch. Glaubitz was assigned to rebuild it. The work was finished in 1769; however, 10 years later, the tower of the City Hall started to incline due to the weak foundations. L. Gucevicius was assigned to repair it. Unfortunately, the tower collapsed damaging the part of the building of the City Hall. L. Gucevicius was again assigned to rebuild Vilnius City Hall. A few projects were presented to the King (the consent of the ruler of the country was required for a project of such scale) and the Magistracy for an assessment. The most modest and most easily implementable project was selected. The construction operations were finished almost two years after the death of the Architect L. Gucevicius – in 1799; the operations of interior decoration also took place in the 19th century.
From the establishment of the institution of the Magistracy in 1387 to 1808 when it was dispersed by order of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, both the building of the City Hall and the adjacent square were one of the key centre of attraction of the social and cultural life of the citizens of Vilnius.
The “Mažasis” (“Small”) Theatre operated in the building of the City Hall from 1811, and the permanent theatre of the City was established from 1845 to 1922. Later, the building was abandoned and started to become extinct.
In the years 1936 through 1939, Vilnius City Hall was restored according to the project of the Architect S. Narembskis. During the restoration of the interior, it was sought to follow the stylistics of the second half of the 18thcentury. The granite staircase was equipped in the central façade of the building, the Gothic-style cellars were conserved. It was wished to apply the building to the representative needs of the City; however, with the start of the World War II, part of the operations remained unimplemented. The Lithuanian Art Museum operated at the City Hall after the war (from 1944) to 1995.
Presently, the events of public institutions, commercial companies take place at Vilnius City Hall, wherefore the spaces of the building are rented, the organizational assistance is provided."
--Source (
visit link)