Ratusz

Ratusz
Original Gothic ratusz in Tarnów with a brick lookout tower and a pristine 16 century clock [1]

A Ratusz (Polish pronunciation: ['ratuʂ]; German: Rathaus; Lithuanian: Rotušė) is a historic administrative building in countries that adopted the Magdeburg rights such as the Holy Roman Empire, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and others. It was distinguished with a bell tower (lookout or a clock tower). Unlike a regular city hall which may or may not have any specific architectural compositions, ratusz (rathaus) always consisted of a building with a tower.

Ratusz was primarily designated as a city hall, traditionally built in the centre of a town or in the middle of a town square or more common market square (freedom of trade as the main goal of Magdeburg rights). Although the old ratusz can still maintain the function of a seat of local government, frequently it is separated from the contemporary city government, the administrative building housing the town council, and often serves as a museum of local history (for example in Ivano-Frankivsk and Tarnów among many others).^[2]