History
The construction of the Pułtusk town hall, the seat of the municipal authorities, began at the beginning of the 15th century. It was to be founded in 1405, probably in a wooden form, by the Bishop of Płock, Jakub Kurdwanowski. A Gothic tower added to the town hall a bit later, serving both judicial and penitentiary and defensive functions, was already built as a brick structure.
In the sixteenth century a new, lower Renaissance town hall with an attic was built. It burnt several times during the wars in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1728 it was rebuilt on the initiative of bishop Andrzej Stanisław Kostka Załuski and survived until the end of the 19th century. At that time, apart from the town authorities, there was an army headquarter here, also there were prison and even warehouses of the Pułtusk merchants.
At the end of the 19th century a shelter was erected in the ruined building, and from 1880 the ground floor and the tower were put into use by the Voluntary Fire Brigade. After 1902, a new, smaller neo-Gothic building was erected on the site of the former building. During the Second World War, the depot and the tower were partially destroyed. In the years 1947 – 1949 the tower was renovated according to the design of Mieczysław Rzepecki, while the depot was demolished. In the tower in 1964, the Regional Museum was established, which is still here today.
Architecture
The town hall tower was initially 15 meters high and was built on a rectangular plan. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it was gradually raised, but further storeys were built on an octagonal plan, thanks to which it reached over 30 meters in height and eight storeys (four in the quadrilateral part, another four in the octagonal part). The façades of the tower received irregularly spaced horizontal divisions, obtained by means of stepped and cubic cornices. The upper parts of the tower were decorated with plaster-covered panels with semicircular finials. For functional reasons, the window openings were placed rather rarely, and they have also semicircular finials. The cellars of the tower were covered with a barrel vault, and the upper storeys were separated by flat, wooden ceilings.
Current state
The town hall tower has survived to the present day from the medieval seat of the municipal authorities of Pułtusk. In 1964, the Regional Museum was organized in it, which is located there to this day. Interestingly, the tower is located in the middle of the market square, which is considered to be the longest in Europe.
bibliography:
Pawlak R., Polska. Zabytkowe ratusze, Warszawa 2003.
Website pultusk.pl, Wieża dawnego ratusza gotycko–renesansowa.