Vilnius Town Hall
The Vilnius town hall is located in the old part of the city of Vilnius in Lithuania. The architect Laurynas Stuoka-Gucevičius designed it. It was the traditional hub of all trading and other events in Vilnius in those times. Meat products and salt and iron were sold in the stores located there earlier. Apart from this, the age-old restrictions against Jewish butchers setting up their shops there and along Vokiečių Street were also prevalent. Prosecution, confiscating the merchandise, flogging, punishment, etc were very common in those days if anyone was found violating the normal rules and regulations governing the market around the Vilnius town hall. All these shops and stalls constructed around the Vilnius town hall were funded by the city.
In a way the system was very good as all the goods that were illegally sold at high prices elsewhere when there was a deficit were donated to the hospitals and the refugees. Apart from being the center of trade and sale, it was also the point where a lot of festivities and celebrations were carried out and various troupes of performers and acrobats used to show off their skills. The Vilnius town hall near the main town square was also the spot where all the major meetings and fairs were announces. Annual fairs were held here regularly. Some of the se age-old traditions exist to this day like the Christmas tree being decorated and placed at the Vilnius town hall each and every year. Apart from this, at the Vilnius town hall are also still held many other celebrations and important events and dates of the state are also held here.
Around the year 1387, when Vilnius was granted the wish of being self-ruled, there was a proposal to construct the Vilnius town hall. As early as the works of the year 1432 too, there is a mention of the structure of the Vilnius town hall. In the year 1572, it was decided to add a tower to the Vilnius town hall that reached the skies and also where a fire could be lit in case of a situation of emergency when the people of the town had to be warned of any impending danger. In the seventeenth century, the characteristic bells were hung and the Town Hall Clock was also added. Though in the year 1748, fire razed it to the ground, the Vilnius town hall was reconstructed by the year 1769.
