Praetorium

The Praetorium (Old Town Hall) building was built as part of the Banská Bystrica town castle area after 1500. In the former administration building, there were offices for the mayor and a city notary, city council, and a jail located in the underground of the building. In the second half of the 16th century, an extensive reconstruction of the building took place, on the basis of which it acquired a Renaissance character with an arcade loggia. After a major fire in 1761, the Praetorium building began falling into ruin until the early 19th century, when it began to serve primarily the school’s needs. The last extensive reconstruction of the old town hall took place in 1944, when the late-baroque interior was rebuilt in a functionalist spirit. In 1951, the first exhibition of the SNP Museum was opened in the building. The regional gallery in Banská Bystrica, the today’s Central Slovakian Gallery, acquired the building in 1969, and in 1970 it opened its first international exhibition.