!!!Rathaus

Town hall, place of meeting for the citizens' representatives since 
the late Middle Ages, with administrative and representative bodies; 
in former times town halls also included grain stores, arms depots, 
the town scale, salt deposits etc.; town halls often have a tower with 
a clock. The old town hall in Vienna (Altes Rathaus) has a Gothic 
core, it was altered and extended in 1455-1457 and 1699-1706; the town 
hall in Wiener Neustadt was built in 1488, it was reconstructed in 
1587-1590 and later redecorated in Baroque style. In 1452 Margarete 
von Dachsberg endowed the town of Krems with some houses which were 
altered in 1548 (hall and oriel) to serve as a town hall. There are 
also old town-hall buildings in St. Poelten (1501, Baroque 
façade 1727), in Hall in Tirol (donated to the town by 
Leopold IV in 1406, altered after 1453), in Feldkirch (core dates 
back to 1494), in Salzburg (acquired by the town in 1407, altered in 
1616-1818, new façade in 1772) and in Bruck an der Mur 
(late Gothic façade 1792). Many town halls were built between 
the 16%%sup th/%  and the 18%%sup th/%  centuries, for example in Linz 
(1513, altered in 1658), Grein (1562), Gmunden (core dates back to the 
16%%sup th/%  century, stucco decoration 1756), Retz 
(16%%sup th/%  century), Bregenz (1686, façade 1898), 
Steyr (built by J. G. Hayberger in 1756-1778) and Wels 
(redecorated in late Baroque style in 1748). Some significant 
buildings were constructed in the 19%%sup th/%  century: in Baden 
(1815), New Town Hall (Neues Rathaus) in Vienna (laid out around three 
courts, after plans by F. von Schmidt, neo-Gothic style, 
1872-1883), in Graz (1887-1893 a four-storey building according to 
plans by A. Wielemans and T. Reuter). The town halls in Villach 
(1951-1954, replaced Khevenhueller Palace, which was destroyed during 
the war), in Leoben (1964-1973, after plans by K. Thornton) and in 
Linz (1979-1985 by R. Falkner and A. Fuertler) were all built in the 
20%%sup th/%  century. Large parts of the town hall in Innsbruck were 
altered in the 20%%sup th/%  century.

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In some municipalities, town castles or historic buildings were 
adapted for use as town halls, for example in Klagenfurt what used to 
be Rosenberg Palace and in Salzburg the Mirabell Palace are now town 
halls. As the overall volume of administrative work has increased, 
there has been a growing need for more room, so that very often only a 
part of the municipal bodies are located in the town halls.

!Literature
H. Tufar, Das oesterreichische Rathaus, 1975.


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