Miasto i Gmina Gniew

Town hall

The town hall, located in the central part of the market, was founded at the turn of the XIV and XV century. Originally, it was a four-sided building with the internal courtyard, a tower and stalls in the basement. The building was seriously damaged during the Swedish wars in the XVII century. The overall restoration of the town hall, for the amount of 6150 crowns, was performed in 1853 by the mason master Erich Obuch from Gniew. A stylish arcade was built in front of the northern façade and the town hall was adorned with a balcony.

In 1818 the eastern wing was demolished, in order to build the Evangelical Church in its place in 1823. The southern wing and the tower were demolished in 1836, and the residential buildings were erected in their place, which originated from the times, when the stalls with goods for sale were placed around it. Today, the oldest parts include the cellars and the ground floor.

In front of the town hall, in January 1920, the residents built a field altar, on which father Ignacy Rosentreter performed a mass on January 27 for the soldiers from the Pomerania Front of gen. Joseph Haller, who joined Gniew to Poland after 148 years of partition.

The same year, conducting the propaganda and agitation action in the Polish Pomerania, preceding the plebiscite on the inclusion of this area to Poland, Gniew has been visited by the poet, Jan Kasprowicz and the writer, Stefan Żeromski. They met in the town hall with the first governor of the Gniew district, Franciszek Czarnowski.

Currently, the building is used as the seat of the Municipal Council in Gniew.