New Town Hall in the Czech Republic, Brno Spa
Rating: 7,7/10 (2045 votes)  The history of the New Town Hall complex, located in the city of Brno, is quite closely connected with the construction of the Dominican monastery. The Dominicans came to Brno in 1240. In the middle of the 13th century, they built their own monastery next to the Church of St. Michael. Construction began from the west wing. The corridor of the cathedral was decorated with a cross vault made in the Gothic style, decorated with frescoes, fragments of which can be seen today. In the second half of the 13th century, Moravian land assemblies, provincial courts and proceedings were held in the hall of the western wing. In 1348, Charles IV united Znoemsky, Brno, The Emnicka and Iglava Provincial Courts in the Brno Unified Zemsky Court, which was located in the main building of the monastery. At that time, only the western wing was completed, the northern wing was enclosed only by the outer walls. In the 16th century, one meeting room was no longer enough, so in 1578 it was decided to build new halls. The design was commissioned by Italian architects Antonio and Pietro Gabri. During construction work, new Renaissance chambers were created on the ground floor in the north and west wings. The chambers were accessed via a Renaissance staircase created by Gabri. At the same time, the architects erected arcades with a clock tower on the eastern outskirts of the monastery garden. In the first half of the 17th century, King Ferdinand established the Royal Tribunal here, at the same time the administrations of Brno and Olomouc were united by his son Ferdinand III. This is how Brno became the capital of Moravia. There was no longer enough space in the building of the monastery for courts and sessions. Then the attention on the issue of expanding the monastery was diverted by the siege of Brno, and in the future - – lack of funds. In 1666, the construction of a new Tribunal House began in the monastery garden, approximately on the site of the current wing separating the first and second courtyards of the Town Hall. The building was completed in 1672. In 1717 the Tribunal House was completely destroyed, and in 1719 a new Baroque building was built, designed by Moritz Grimm. In 1784 the monastery was taken over by the army, therefore it was used as a warehouse, which ultimately affected the interior of the building in a bad way. In 1869 the building was bought by the zemstvo committee, but after a while a decision was made to construct a new building, and the complex was sold to Brno. A gymnasium, a public canteen and a number of public associations were located here. In 1886, the complex was restored. At the beginning of the XX century, in connection with the reconstruction of the city, valuable portals of houses intended for demolition were placed in the Zemsky House.  
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