The Old Town Hall in

Silkeborg Silkeborg () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 52,571 (1 January 2025).Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, was built in 1857 and now houses the local tourist office. It is listed.

History

The town hall was built in 1857 to designs by H. C. Zeltner, who had also designed the town halls in

Horsens Horsens () is a city on the east coast of the Jutland region of Denmark. It is the seat of the Horsens municipality. The city's population is 64,418 (1 January 2025) and the municipality's population is 97,921 (), making it the List of cities and ...

and

Skanderborg Skanderborg is a town in Skanderborg Municipality, Denmark. It is situated on the north and north eastern brinks of Skanderborg Lake and there are several smaller ponds and bodies of water within the city itself, like Lillesø, Sortesø, Døj S ...

. It remained in use until 1970 when a new town hall was inaugurated on Søvej. The building was then used as a

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

but was decommissioned in connection with the 2007 Danish Judicial Reform which reduced the number of municipalities in Denmark. It was then left empty for a couple of years.

Architecture

The two-storey town hall is built in brick to a

Historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying the process or history by which they came about. The term is widely used in philosophy, ant ...

design. It has

crow-stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

s and has a short hexagonal tower with a

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

-clad spire projecting from the middle of the main facade facing the square. The building was listed in 1978.

Current use

The building now houses the local tourist office as well as several local organisations.

References

{{coord, 56.1692, 9.5486, type:landmark_region:DK, display=title Listed buildings and structures in Silkeborg Municipality Listed city and town halls in Denmark Historicist architecture in Denmark Government buildings completed in 1857 Former seats of local government 1857 establishments in Denmark