Mukachevo Town Hall

Mukachevo CityHall is a three-story administrative building in the city of Mukachevo (Zakarpattia region). It was built in the early 20th century (1904) in the Neo-Gothic style under the influence of the Hungarian Secession. The Town Hall stands in the very center of the city, on Myr Square and at the beginning of Pushkin Street.

In 1898, a competition for the town hall design was announced. Twelve projects took part, among which the project of the capital's architect Janos Bobula Jr. (1871-1922) won. The construction work began on July 16, 1903, and the author himself supervised the construction together with engineer Gustaw Bernowicz. The ceremonial groundbreaking took place on July 23, 1903.

The architect gave the building Gothic features in the context of modernized Hungarian retrospectivism. The town hall tower is made in the schematic forms of ancient medieval architecture; it adjoins the building's risalit with small spire towers-bay windows in the corners, under which are bas-reliefs depicting the historic coat of arms of the city (St. Martin on horseback). On the ground floor, there are galleries with cross vaults similar to medieval trade galleries. The ground floor windows also have large lancet arches. The façade wall is divided by blades and ends with a smooth wavy line of a low attic.

There is a chiming clock on the town hall tower. According to archival data, it was made by Joseph Shovinsky. The chime mechanism is made of steel and the bearings are made of bronze. The clock was installed at the end of 1904, and at that time it was one of the five best tower clocks in Europe.

TheMukachevo Town Hall gives the impression of solidity and solemnity, as befits the residence of the city administration, which was located in this building during all the times of the city's history. The plastic layout, characteristic of the Hungarian Art Nouveau school of the early twentieth century, and the romantic character of the building as a whole give the building of the Mukachevo City Hall an atmosphere of a certain "fairy tale".