Bardejov Town Hall is a Gothic-Renaissance building built in the middle of Town Hall Square. In terms of construction and importance, the Town Hall formed both functional and ideological counterweight to the parish Temple of St. Giles. It was the seat of the town council, the centre of business, social and cultural life of the town inhabitants. From the architectural point of view, the Town Hall building is an important testament to the penetration of Renaissance art and architectural elements into the fading-away Gothic concept of architecture. The end of the 15th century brought economic and social life boom to Bardejov, which was also reflected in the life of the aristocracy. The important position of the town as well as the need for more representative premises for council meetings was to ensure the construction of an opulent Town Hall. On the basis of town council resolution, it was built in the middle of the market square.
Renaissance Town Hall in Bardejov is a one-storey building of a block character, located on a regular rectangular plan view with a longer side in the north-south direction. It is characterized by high side shields of saddle tile roof and Renaissance oriel window on its east side, accessing the second floor. On the shield of the northern façade there are three carved windows and a town sign. The gable of the southern façade is completed by four windows, a clock and painted coats of arms of the town and Kingdom of Hungary. At the top of the southern gable stands the figure of the legendary knight Roland with a halberd (the work of master Ján of Prešov dated around 1509), a symbolic protector of town privileges. The original stone statue was replaced in 1641 by a wooden one covered with copper sheet. The current statue is a copy and is made entirely of copper sheet. The windows on all facades have the same shapes. Both roof gables are complemented by groups of statues and crockets – the southern gable: a lion, a man with beard, a cat, a monkey, a cloth merchant, the northern gable: a demon, a man with an hourglass, a dragon, a king, a stonemason and a man with a stick.
Its importance from a historical and artistic point of view was also appreciated by the society when it was entered in the list of National Cultural Monuments of Slovakia in 1985. As a monument of supraregional importance, the town hall, together with other monuments of the historic centre in Bardejov, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000.
Today, the historic premises of the town hall are used as rooms of the Saris Museum, where the historical exhibition Bardejov – Royal Free City is permanently located.
