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The town hall remains the most important building in the square. It was once the place where municipal matters were heard and misdemeanours were adjudicated. Today it compels attention as one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture in Poland.

Undoubtedly, the history of the Town Hall dates from the second half of the 13^th century though the first mention is from 1310. The Gothic cellars must have been built around that date because the keystone on the vault carries the coat of arms of the Bohemian dynasty of the Premyslids, who reigned Poland in the years 1300-1306. Of late Gothic origin are the shaft of the tower and two portals on the first floor, which dates from the turn of the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

The turning point came in 1536 when a disastrous fire swept through the city. Immediate repair work was fraught with problems from the very start and it was not brought to an end until fourteen years later, when the city council commissioned the Italian architect Giovanni Battista di Quadro to finish the project. In accordance with the contract he signed with the councillors, di Quadro expanded the town hall structure westwards and stabilised the out-of-true tower. He also designed the three-storey loggia and the Grand Vestibule. A "clownish mechanism" devised by master craftsman Bartłomiej Wolff of Gubin was mounted on the tower at the same time: two goats clashing their horns at the top of every hour. Nowadays, they only appear at noon.

Though the townspeople of Poznań took great pride in keeping the town hall in good condition, the building became dilapidated during the economic crisis caused by the Polish-Swedish wars. It was not until the years 1782-1784 that it was restored through the efforts of the Commission of Good Order. A neoclassical spire designed by the Warsaw-based architect Efraim Szreger was placed on the tower, replacing the old one that had been blown down fifty years earlier. Since then, the structure of the town hall has remained virtually unchanged. It underwent extensive restoration after World War II and in recent years several corrections have been made to the exterior decoration, reflecting the present state of our knowledge.

4. The aforementioned loggia is the most distinctive feature of Poznań Town Hall. Based upon the principles codified in the famous architectural treatise by Sebastiano Serlio, it is one of the first modern façades in Poland. Equally innovative is the attic. In the east it has the form of a mural crown that is often contained in municipal coats of arms (including that of Poznań) and symbolises civic sovereignty. The principles upon which "a municipal republic" should be based are represented by the bas-reliefs adorning the corners of the arcade on the ground floor. They illustrate the virtues of Patience, Prudence, Love, Righteousness, Faith, Hope, Courage and Moderation much desired of those who wield power. They are supplemented with representations of winged geniuses on the first floor, which are considered an allegory of moral victory.

The painting decoration is also important, both for ideological and aesthetic reasons. In accordance with the sixteenth-century records, the murals in the attic depict the Jagiellon monarchs: Jadwiga, Władysław Jagiełło (Jogaila), Vladislaus III of Varna, Casimir, John I Albert, Alexander, Sigismund I the Old and Sigismund II (Sigismund) Augustus. The original content of the paintings on the side axes is unknown; in the seventeenth century the squares featured religious scenes but during the reign of Stanisław August they were replaced with portraits of other Polish kings and dukes. The latter tradition was adopted during the most recent restoration and the walls are now adorned with images of Polish monarchs of the Piast dynasty, who maintained strong bonds with Poznań: Mieszko 1, Boleslav the Brave, Premislas I, Premislas II and also Vladislaus the Elbow-high and Casimir the Great. Yet another gallery, featuring the coats of arms and emblems of Poznań councillors, is located inside the loggia on the first floor.

The other façades have modest wall decoration. The stone work is rusticated and finished in the sgraffito manner with coloured friezes running around the building. The attic is not split into fields and covered in Latin inscriptions. The buttress adjoining the south façade is crowned with a pinnacle decorated with three faces, interpreted by some as the legendary brothers Lech, Czech and Rus and as Svetovid-Triglav (Three-headed) by others. The truth is, however, that the pinnacle symbolises prudence and resembles a staff once used by mayors as the attribute of their power. The north façade also boasts a reconstruction of an inscription starting with the words: "HOC OPUS ARTIFICIS JOANNIS BAPTISTAE ITALI..." ("This is the work of Giovanni Battista the Italian...") and the artist's coat of arms.

5. The decoration of the vault in the Grand Vestibule corresponds to that on the façade. The vault is surmounted on two pillars and in the north part contains the coats of arms of Poland, Lithuania, the Jagiellons, the Sforzas, the Habsburgs and of Poznań as well as representations of biblical and mythological heroes such as David, Samson, Hercules and Marcus Crusius. The south section of the vault features the head of Christ-Cosmocrator, such heavenly bodies as the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn and Venus, real-life animals: the eagle, the leopard, the lion, the rhinoceros and the elephant and two legendary creatures: the Griffin and Pegasus. The symbolism of the imagery remains unclear but it is assumed that it emphasises the significance of courage in ensuring prosperity for the country and the city, and heaven is the reward for the courageous ones. The design concept was most likely developed by Mayor Kasper Goski, who had a passion for astrology.

The Royal Room and the Court Room were also richly decorated in the past. The Royal Room owes its name to royal portraits that once adorned its walls. Not much is left of the original interior; the Renaissance fireplace featuring the city's coat of arms once belonged in the Weighhouse and was placed in the Town Hall in the late nineteenth century. In the Court Room there are the remains of decorative painting on the vault, featuring the founders of Poznań, the dukes Premislas I and Boleslav the Pious along with symbolic images of Africa, America, Asia, and Europe. The statue of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, a work by the Poznań-based sculptor Augustyn Schöps, was put on display here in gratitude for royal favours.

Until World War II the town hall was the site of municipalities - today it houses the Museum of the History of Poznań.

6. A bugle-call performed live from the tower can be heard everyday at noon. At the top of every hour, the melody is produced by the chimes installed on the central turret. The melody is simple and does not require special skills from the trumpeter. It is assumed that the bugle-call is one of the oldest in Poland and in fact information on municipal trumpeters has been found in archive documents from the fifteenth century. The tradition of keeping guards in the tower was kept alive until the nineteenth century.

The Poznań bugle-call has also been the subject of legend. Legend has it that the son of the trumpeter once looked after the wounded king of the ravens, who left him a silver trumpet as a token of gratitude. Years later, when the boy grew up and took over his father's office, he used the silver instrument to call the birds and they came to rescue the besieged city.