Rathaus Bernkastel

Long before, in the year 1540, there stood at this site an earlier town hall, which housed two council chambers as well as an apartment for the then city clerk Wilhelm Kremer. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the years 1903 and 1904, the town hall was extended to the west. This expansion was carried out under the direction of an architect from Trier and harmoniously blended into the existing ensemble. Even today, the building with its distinctive market gable is regarded as one of the outstanding gems of the Bernkastel marketplace.

The facade of the town hall is considered a magnificent example of German late Renaissance. Particularly striking is the coat of arms of Archbishop Lothar von Metternich, who is considered a patron and supporter of the master builder Hoffmann, to whom the work is presumably attributed. The coat of arms displays the characteristic three shell shapes and the electoral-Trier cross and is located along with the Bernkastel city coat of arms on the richly decorated town hall oriel on the outside. This oriel, which resembles an ornate Renaissance monstrance in its shape, rests on a single basalt column that stands in front of the central support pillar of the ground floor.

On the ground floor itself, round arches open on either side of this oriel column, remnants of the originally open hall. The left half of this hall once served as a fire brigade's pump house, while the right half housed the municipal flour scale. Additionally, there was the historical pillory at the left corner pillar. Here, wrongdoers were once shackled with chains and handcuffs to the public pillory or shame pole. Even today, the engraved words "High Court Punishment" and "Civil Punishment" testify to this dark function of the place and remind us of the legal practices of bygone times.