Gemeente Visit Geraardsbergen

City Hall

The city hall of Geraardsbergen goes way back. The medieval aldermen house used to look like a castle with four corner towers reaching down to the ground. Sieges and fires caused great damage, after which a thorough restoration took place in 1598-99. Three of the four corner towers were considerably shortened and a bell tower appeared in the middle of the roof. An image from this period was recorded in 1641 on an engraving in the Flandria Illustrata by Sanderus. In 1752-53, the city hall was rebuilt in Louis XV style with a plastered facade, but after this short intermezzo, it was renovated in 1891 in neo-Gothic style. For this, architect Pieter Langerock drew on Sanderus’s engraving from 1641.

Civic weddings take place in the old aldermen hall on the first floor. Here, an old justice scene from 1525 is on view, displaying the Last Judgment with the seven capital sins. This is a reminder of the period when the aldermen house was still a courthouse. Municipal council meetings take place in the Council Room on the second floor. The former cloth hall on the ground floor is covered with gothic cross-rib vaults and forms part of the tourist information office.

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