Mogilev. City Hall.

The first wooden town hall was built in Mogilev immediately after the Magdeburg right was granted to the city in 1577 by Stefan Batory. And the brick one was built already in 1681 on Trade Square (today it is Slava Square). The building was two-story with an 8-sided, 5-story tower in front of the main facade. At first, master Kruseberg was invited to build the tower, but the tower collapsed. And then the tower was already being built by Feska, Ignat and Andrey, Mogilev doylids. By 1692, the tower was raised to a height of almost 48 meters. This is the highest town hall in Belarus! The magistrate met every Thursday at 6:00 p.m. On the first floor there were seni, a large "chamber" where the court was held under the leadership of the voit, the chancellery and the town hall. On the second floor there is a magistrate's court, a large hall for magistrates' meetings and auxiliary premises. In the basement floor, treasure was stored, there were warehouses and a city ostrog. The interior was decorated with portraits of the kings of the Commonwealth and Grand Dukes of Lithuania, icons of Mogilev artists. The magisterial archive was kept, which is now in the Minsk Historical Archive. A total of 200 books, written in Belarusian and Polish in Cyrillic and Latin script, remain. The building was heated by tile stoves. It was damaged during the war. In the 1940s and 50s, it began to be restored. But it was demolished in 1957. In 1979, archaeologist Oleg Trusov excavated the foundations of the town hall. The town hall was restored in 2008. Now the building houses the Mogilev Museum of Local History, which has a number of unique exhibits. For example, the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was printed in 1588.