The representative edifice was built in Neo-Baroque style in 1905 ? 1907, designed by the Slupsk architect Eduard Koch. The application for the erection of a new seatthat the county government would present a proposal to the county commission on March 26, 1904. The county council approved the proposal unanimously at a meeting on September 23, 1904. The plan for the new seat of the district authorities was overseen by members of the district commission, as well as Count von Kleist of Tychow, Baron von Senden of Naclaw, the mayor of Slawno - August Stoebbe, agent Johann Plath of Darlowo, a representative of the office from Gorzyca ? Verwiebe and a representative of the office from Warszków ? Drawehn. The district council approved on March 3, 1905 the concept of building a new district office on the opposite side of the old post office building, in front of the Slupsk Gate. It was agreed that the city would purchase a parcel of land the size of 3,700 m? from the owners of the site. On June 16, 1905, the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone took place. A deed was laid in the southeast column of the new building with the following words ? "The foundation is now ready, therefore the cornerstone can be laid. To commemorate the event, the county commission met today around 12 noon. After a short speech, royal landrat (district governor) Heinrich von Below-Seehof laid the first stone on the southeast pillar with the words: ? "respect everyone, love brothers, fear God, revere the king?". To commemorate this important hour in the history of the district, this document is embedded, as well as several items. Our sincere wishes accompany this ceremony. Grow our District Office and become an ornament to our county. May fate keep you safe from fire and other misfortunes. May the spirit of honesty and harmony reign in your premises. May the work of your officials and office be completed always with success and may it serve in its end goal the glory of our Slawno County and our dear German homeland. Godspeed! The deed was accompanied by documents: a financial summary for 1905, the Slawno Gazette of June 16, 1905, a Slawno County pamphlet of June 13, 1905, a list of county commission members and a list of officials. As early as November 1905, the construction of the building was advanced enough to hold a topping-out ceremony, and on January 8, 1906, the first ceremonial meeting was held in the new meeting hall, attended by 130 people, including the super-president of the Pommern province from Szczecin-Baron von Maltzahn and the president of the regency of Koszalin-Count von Schwerin. The cost of building the office was 362,942.71 marks. Until 1945, the building served as a district office (starosty). After the Soviet army entered the city, the Soviet commandant's office was stationed there. After the end of hostilities until modern times, county, municipal and communal authorities held offices in the building. Currently, it houses the City Hall and the Municipality Office. On May 14, 2009, Slawno City Hall hosted the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczynski. The visit was connected with the awarding of medals to members of the Polish Military Organization, which was active in Sławno County in the mid-1940s. The building is situated on an L-shaped plan. The base of the edifice was built of natural stone boulders in shades of gray, pink and blue, while the exterior walls were made of ceramic brick, which was then plastered, adding rich stucco. The building was covered with a mansard roof, with trilateral exhibitions, covered with multi-pitched roofs with gables ending in metal pinnacles. The main body was topped with an octagonal tower, with a gallery. The tower is covered with an onion-shaped roof, and above it is a pinnacle with openwork decorations. The building has a basement throughout, and the high cellars are used as official rooms. The building is one of the few in Slawno to have survived the World War II period and has original interior decoration; doors and hardware, wall and floor tiles, staircase balustrades. In the meeting hall, in the windows filled with lilac stained glass, multicolored coat-of-arms posters of the towns of Slawno, Darlowo, Polanow and Sianow, as well as Pomeranian Junker families, were placed in the central fields. The stained-glass windows were created during the construction of the building, in 1905-1907. Also dating from this period is the wooden paneling mounted on the interior walls of the meeting hall, in which decorative metal finishes of the ventilation openings have been preserved. Three pairs of double doors, topped with supraporta with triangular pediments, with edges in the form of profiled wide cornices, are impressive. An interesting feature is the door leading to one of the rooms in the lower part of the building. Their thickness and the material they were made of prove that they led to a room where valuables were stored. The building hides many other elements that testify to its interesting history. One example is the preserved original technical equipment located in the building's attic. Three reels, with wooden spools on which the metal cords supporting the chandeliers in the conference room are wound, have been in operation for more than a century and are in good working order. The reels can be used to lower and hoist chandeliers weighing several tens of kilograms. In the mayor's office hangs a six-branched chandelier in the art deco style, topped with a sculpture depicting an owl (the lamp shades are contemporary), and the standing, stylish clock, which has been chiming the office hours for years, dates from the 1920s. In one of the rooms of the building found its place, unused for years, a cylindrical Arlac duplicator from the 1920s of the Carl Fr.Brauer company from Szczecin, with a nameplate: model 14, no. 6003. One of this type of equipment is in the Warsaw Uprising Museum in Warsaw. The glass panes in the windows of the Sławno City Hall may also surprise you . On one of them there is an inscription in Russian, carved with a device with a sharp, hard end : 08.03.45 . It can be assumed that in this room, located on the top floor of the building, a military radio station was placed in March 1945. Since 2003, under the auspices of the mayor of Slawno and the Association of Polish Artists of the Koszalin and Slupsk districts, the ?W Ratuszu? gallery exhibiting graphic works, especially exlibrises, has been operating in the building. Slawno City Hall is listed in the register of the Provincial Conservator of Monuments.
28.09.2011
