Visited:30. 9. 2021
History:The Kadaň Town Hall with its adjacent white tower is a Gothic building located in the Kadaň Conservation Area on Mírové Square. The town hall tower is one of the monuments that still serve the same purpose for which they were built many centuries ago. The Town Hall was built sometime after the middle of the 14th century on the floor of the town's market hall at the corner of the square and the later St. Originally, there was a merchant's Gothic house on this site, but it burnt down in a fire in 1362 and this Gothic-style town hall was built on its ruins. Sometime around 1400, this town hall was supplemented by a Gothic town hall tower, which protected the entrance to the staircase to the offices. From the gallery of the tower, it was possible to see what was happening in the whole town, on its walls and in the surrounding area. As early as 1404, the local Gothic Arch Chapel is documented. The first major reconstruction of the town hall took place between 1502 and 1520, when the town hall underwent a late Gothic reconstruction, giving the tower its present form. In the mid-18th century, the town hall was rebuilt in the Baroque style, but in 1811 the town hall was damaged in a fire, so it underwent Classical alterations in the 19th century. The town hall building is divided into three sections - the east aisle, the west aisle and the longest north aisle. The interior of the town hall is Gothic, but the most noticeable change has been to the facade facing the street and the square. Between the windows of the first and second floors in the main façade facing the square can be seen four emblems. Three of them - from the left, the Hungarian, then the imperial and then the Czech - represent the ruler, the fourth belongs to Kadani. It is known from written sources that the maker of all four emblems from 1816 was Mates Leopold Täublinger for the sum of 40 gold coins. The municipal coat of arms can also be seen in the shield facing the street. In 1849 Kadan became the centre of the political and judicial district during the reform of the state administration. On 6 March 1849, the city council resolved to hand over the city hall to the state for the use of the district administration. The town hall of the county administration was used as a first floor, the ground floor was used as a prison and the rest was used by the tax office and part of the town council. However, the district governor's office occupied the building for only four years. In 1899, the city purchased the adjacent house at the Sun on the square to help expand the office space. Under its classical façade, decorated with busts on the gable and statues of the four seasons on the attic, there are Renaissance murals. It is not possible to see them because they are not fully exposed. In 1901 the town hall was extensively renovated by the builder Josef Peter. During the 20th century, the town hall underwent only minor repairs to the interior, which gave it its present appearance. The last major exterior renovation and repair of the town hall complex, which included the addition of another medieval building, the so-called Šlik House, one of the oldest in the town, on the south side, took place in 1991. The helmis (pointed roof) of the town hall tower with the gallery was repaired in spring 2014. On the ground floor, the Gothic vaulted space used today as the Josef Liesler Gallery has been preserved.
The Kadan Town Hall Tower is 53.75 metres tall and is the tallest building in Kadan. It has a total of 5 floors, which are connected by a right-hand staircase with a total of 120 steps. The tower also includes the aforementioned bay chapel. The fact that there is a chapel in the tower proves that Kadan was a very rich city on the trade routes in the Middle Ages and could afford to build such a spectacular and atypical town hall tower for its time. A great interest is that the town hall tower does not contain any roof tiles; it is all-stone from the level of the square to the top. The first floor area of the Town Hall Tower was built in the early 16th century as a place of worship for the Lord Mayor and other councillors. This room was also used for the swearing in of medieval local government officials. The chapel served its purpose until the end of the 18th century, when in 1794 Jacob Roith painted it in the typical decoration of the Classical period. It was not until the 19th century (1842 at the latest) that it became the seat of the municipal archives and in 2008 the historic plasterwork was uncovered and restored. The entire chapel is divided into two parts, the area for the priest at the altar and the nave for visitors and participants in the service. The square nave occupies the whole area of the floor and is accessible by a direct staircase from the town hall. A door in the north wall then opens with a right-hand staircase to the other floors of the tower, which served the various needs of the city. A narrow chancel extends from the wall to an ornate bay window visible from the square. The site is enclosed from above by a Gothic broken cross vault. The floor is covered with old brick tiles called topiary. In the north wall there is a so-called saddle portal. The upper side is shaped like a horse's saddle. The walls have preserved several evidences of the original medieval function of the chapel, which together with the tower served as a repository for valuables and documents. In addition to the two iron door wings, there is a vault in the west wall. Above the staircase from the town hall, Latin words of prayer were found in the bottom of the plaster. There is also an iron Renaissance chest for documents and money, which belongs to the original furnishings of the chapel. The youngest piece of furniture is a green corner cabinet for archives dating from the mid-18th century. The most valuable artefact in the chapel, however, are the four consoles that top the broken arches. According to the preserved sources, the second floor of the town hall tower was first used as a town cloakroom, then also as a warehouse and archive of town documents. At the end of the 18th century, another entrance to the town hall tower was built, a service entrance, but it is not used for regular entrances. Two inscriptions in German - excerpts from the Bible from the late 18th century - are visible at the entrance. The third floor is at about the same height as the plague column in Peace Square, 25 metres. On this floor there is part of a chain weight belonging to a clockwork mechanism from the early 20th century. This floor is currently used as a flag store. The fourth floor is now closed to the public and is located at a height of 30 metres. It houses a custom-made clock mechanism from 1901. The right-hand stairs of the tower then lead to the tower keeper's apartment, who was responsible for overseeing the safety of Kadan, had a view of the surrounding area and could inform of impending danger at any time. Previously, this apartment occupied three quarters of the gallery, but after the reconstruction in the early 20th century, these spaces were reduced to just the floor plan of the tower, with a total area of 15 square metres. After passing through the black door, one enters the gallery of the tower itself, where at a height of 40 metres one can see the entire historic core and, with good visibility, the highest peak of the Ore Mountains, Mount Klínovec, located about 20 kilometres west of Kadan. On the tower you can observe a very typical clay Renaissance ornament called a crab, there are almost 100 of these crabs on the tower. From its completion until the first half of the 20th century, the tower of the Kadan town hall was always occupied by the tower keeper and his family. He performed an important guard duty for the royal city of Kadan. His main task was to observe the town and its surroundings from the gallery of the town hall tower and to report any danger, especially if there was a fire somewhere in the town. Much later, a telephone was also introduced into the tower keeper's apartment for this purpose. In addition to their salary, the tower-keepers received a free tower flat, firewood and later also electricity from the town, but they had to go to the square with a bucket to fetch water. The tower flat also had a waste pipe, the cleanliness and functioning of which had to be regularly maintained by the towers. In addition to their duties on the town hall tower, the town's towermen also took care of the tower and later the clockwork of the Holy Gate and could also perform other crafts for their livelihood. In the event of illness, the tower keeper could be replaced by his wife in the performance of his duties. The legend of the skeleton of Kadan mentions the tower keeper Urbana who, together with his daughter Judith, rid the town of the ghostly skeleton. However, the official position of the town watchman is not as ancient as it might seem, as it was still occupied in Kadan in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. This service was successively performed by Josef Thau (1888-1891), Wenzl Blumentritt (1891-1900), Franz Taut (1900-1913), Anton Oswald (1913-1932), and finally, from 1932, Alois Kerles, who was probably the last Kadan tower keeper ever, serving probably until 1939/1940, occupying the small apartment in the tower together with his wife and four children. In the last decade of the 19th century, the aforementioned Wenzl Blumentritt served as Kadan's city tower keeper. He was born on 4 January 1851 in the Spital suburb of Kadan, in the now demolished house no. 267, into the family of Josef Blumentritt, a burgher and master weaver. With his wife Anna Aloysia, née Klinger, originally from Hora Svatý Šebestián, Wenzl Blumentritt raised three daughters and one son. As he was a musician by profession, he enriched the life of the inhabitants of Kadan with occasional concerts directly from the gallery of the town hall tower. This popular Kadan tower-driver died on 31 August 1917 in Kadan in house No. 335 in the former Josefská Street (now Jirásek Street). When he was buried on 2 September in the local cemetery by the then Dean of Kadan, P. Karl Wach, not only his family but also many inhabitants of the town came to honour his memory. Blumentritt's wife Anna Aloisia died on 26 June 1919 in the Elizabethan monastery hospital, also in Kadan. On the side of the gallery that faces the square, about one metre below the railings, there is a statue of the dog to whom the story goes. It tells of a wealthy but greedy Kadan townsman who was a goldsmith by profession and an honourable member of the town council. He lived in a house near the town square, without a wife or children, with only his dog, which he taught to steal money from the town treasury. After a time the truth came out and a severe sentence was passed on the treacherous councillor - he was to be executed for his wickedness. For several weeks he pleaded with the town council to let him go, that he would atone for what he had done and do whatever they wished. His task was to climb to the top of the town hall tower after the crabs, touch it and climb back down to the gallery. His dog watched the whole affair from the gallery, and when he saw that the perilous journey was coming to a happy end, he began to jump for joy, and out of inattention he tumbled down. His master, according to legend, overcame all dangers and succeeded in his daring feat. He did not, however, rejoice long in his success, and on the third day afterwards died of fever. To commemorate this event, a stone statue of a dog was placed on the town hall tower to remind the population of Kadan that dishonesty does not pay. According to historians, however, the rumour is fictitious and the dog on the tower is the peculiar signature of its builder Peter Hundt (Hund is German for dog).
Source:https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kada%C5%88sk%C3%A1_radii
Source:https://www.hrady.cz/palac-dum-radnice-kadan
Source:https://www.pamatkovykatalog.cz/radnice-13341764
Impressions:A beautiful and impressive town hall building, decorated with a unique late Gothic tower.
