House No. 73 (The Townhall)
The Townhall is situated on the eastern side of Horní náměstí (The Upper Square) at the point where the square merges into Kostelní and Husova streets.
When it was first built, it was a town mansion, although even at that time part of the building was used for the local government administration. Since 1922 its purpose has been solely for the local government offices.
It is built on an L-shaped groundplan, it has two upper floors, it has a mansard roof and the frontage is decorated by five blind arcades.
In 1697 the original wooden building was demolished on the instruction of earl Josef of Trauttmannsdorf and then a new one was constructed. This building was reconstructed in the classicist style in 1797 according to plans drawn up by Johann Josef Kuntze. Further reconstruction in 1840 culminated in arcades being turned into the blind arcades.
In 1930 some cosmetic building work took place in which the corner was demolished and replaced by a bay, the reason being was to widen the road to allow for larger transport vehicles. We believe that the building work was undertaken by Mr. Hugo Grasbone, while the plans were drawn by Zittau architects Loewe and Wuntig.
Another reconstruction took place in 1983 – 1985 after the whole building was destroyed by the fire and it was rebuilt in its current classicist style keeping to its historical specifications.
After the reconstruction in the 18th century, the building was sold by the county owner Christian Philip, Earl Clam-Gallas to Mariana Appeltová, who later bequeathed it to her husband. However, in 1808 Christian Philip, Earl Clam-Gallas repurchased the building and it was used as the local government administration building. It was later given to Mr. Johann Seidemann for his good service as a Grabštejn chief caretaker. At this time the house No. 44 in Dolní náměstí (The Lower Square) was bought for the purposes of the local administration.
The building of the townhall was purchased from the descendants of Johann Seidemann in 1911 and since 1922 it was thus used solely as the administration building, though two rooms on the right to the entrance were kept as a museum since 1929. At around 1931 part of the building was changed into a library holding 3800 volumes of books. Following the Second World War a part of the space was given to a branch of Česká spořitelna (Czech Savings Bank).
Sadly, during the night of the 2nd and 3rd of May, 1982, fire once more devastated the building. Despite many brave attempts to save it, the second floor and roof were totally destroyed leaving a badly damaged first floor, burnt walls and the chimneys. The prompt action by a fire brigade prevented the fire from spreading to neighbouring properties.
Many of the documents destroyed in the fire were from the building archive, so making it very difficult to find information about the town’ s architectural history.
It was only by good fortune that the building was reconstructed into its present form as it would have been much less expensive to rebuild it in a modern 1990’s style.
