The Jablonec City Hall is asking the public for photographs documenting 90 years of the town hall

Jablonec nad Nisou - The City Hall in Jablonec nad Nisou is asking the public for photographs documenting the history of the Jablonec City Hall. The functionalist building, designed by Liberec architect Karel Winter, is celebrating 90 years since its completion, with representatives first convening there on February 10, 1933. The city hall is preparing several events for the anniversary, one of which will be an exhibition capturing life at the city hall over the past 90 years, spokesperson Jana Fričová told ČTK today.

"And since we do not have those photographs, images, and documents, we are asking the public for help. If people have anything at home, whether they could lend it to us. The photos can capture various events around the city hall as well as inside the building – whether they are celebrations, weddings, sporting events, or recordings of everyday life," Fričová added. According to her, people can contact the mayor's office until the end of May, and the city hall will also reach out to the descendants of the original German residents who were displaced from Jablonec after the war.

The city hall in Jablonec is an important building of Czechoslovak interwar architecture and is the most significant and well-known work of Winter. It was built at the beginning of the crisis over two years. The city went into debt because of the construction, and ultimately there was not enough money for everything. "The city then spent 22 million crowns on the construction. It is difficult to estimate how much that would be in today's money, but when adjusted for gross wages, it amounts to approximately 1.1 billion crowns," said secretary Marek Řeháček.

In recent years, Jablonec has invested tens of millions of crowns to restore the city hall to its original form from the 1930s. The exterior of the building, including the windows and the tower, was repaired, and work was also done on the interiors of the historical building. The most visible change occurred in the meeting rooms, which have been under renovation since 2016. "We removed the modern fiberboard paneling that covered some of the original, now restored wooden elements," Řeháček stated. Missing items, such as tables or chairs, and also lighting have been replaced with replicas made according to Winter's original designs.

On the occasion of the anniversary, the city company Kultura Jablonec is offering guided tours of the building, the first of which will take place on Wednesday, February 1, with additional tours on the first Wednesday of every month until December 6, excluding the summer months and September. "Those interested, however, will not miss out on tours even in the summer; during the holidays, we have daily tours to the observation deck of the city hall tower from 10:00 AM, which are combined with a tour of the city hall. People enjoy them because they can also ride the paternoster," added Radana Schaeferová from Kultura Jablonec.