Shklov Town Hall

The Shklov Town Hall is a two-story building of rectangular shape, close to a square, crowned with a hipped roof. In the center of the building rises an octagonal tower, divided by pilasters and topped with a faceted dome with an elegant spire. The tower housed a clock, a bell, and an observation deck.

The facades of the building are decorated with pilasters and cut through with rectangular windows. The first floor and pilasters are decorated with rustication. The first tier has a through passage, and a corner staircase with two flights led to the second floor. The first floor was allocated for utility rooms, and the main part of the rooms was located on the second floor, on both sides of the corridor. There was a basement under the town hall.

The town hall is adjoined on both sides by single-story shopping arcades, forming a closed complex with a large inner courtyard. The shops located along the perimeter opened with arches to the courtyard and the street, which allowed up to 120 retail outlets to gather in a relatively small area. There are passages in the eastern and western buildings of the shopping arcades. The northern building of shops includes a single-story building with a basement in the center, similar to the town hall, with a tower and a through passage. This building housed warehouses. In the corners of the complex were two-story square barns with hipped roofs. The facades of the corner buildings are decorated with rusticated pilasters.

In 1769, Shklov suffered a devastating fire. After the tragedy, Prince Czartoryski, the owner of the city, decided to move it to a new location. Thus, 2.5 km north of old Shklov, on the high bank of the Dnieper, a new city arose from 1769 to 1778.

In the center of the new city, a market with a town hall and shopping arcades was built in 1770-1772. The town hall, located in the heart of the market, united the main shops and served as the center of trade. The complex, which included granaries in the corners and the city scales in the center of the upper row, offered 120 trading platforms in a relatively small area.

In the pre-war years, the market and town hall buildings were in satisfactory condition, but underwent some changes. The balcony on the main façade was removed, the top of the town hall tower was changed, the central premises of the shops were re-planned, the eastern wing of the shops was possibly lost, and some windows were blocked up.

During the Great Patriotic War, the town hall and the shopping arcades were damaged. During the Soviet era, the former town hall building housed a branch of the state bank, and then the city fire department. By the 1970s, the building had fallen into disrepair. In 1999-2000, the town hall was restored, and the shopping arcades were rebuilt. The restored building houses a gymnasium, and the town hall itself houses a school museum.

In 2007, the town hall was included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Values of Belarus as an object of national significance. In 2017, a memorial plaque was installed on the town hall building, informing about Shklov receiving the Magdeburg Rights in 1574. It is noteworthy that the Shklov landmark is even included in the catalog of world architectural monuments published in the USA.