1518Original from the town hall

Only a single piece of furniture from the time of the construction of the Alsfeld Town Hall a little over 500 years ago (1512 – approx. 1518) has survived to this day: this wooden cabinet door with its typical late Gothic decorative fittings.

These ornate floral decorative fittings of the cabinet are stylistically very similar to those on the interior doors of the Alsfeld Town Hall, which unfortunately have only been partially preserved. They are typical of the Alsfeld representative building of the rising middle class, which constructed its new building during the transition period from Late Gothic to the early Renaissance in this region, specifically between 1512 and approx. 1518.

The history of the predecessor town hall, which remained unclear for many years, was finally resolved in 2022 based on surprising ground finds during the renovation of the marketplace and their scientific evaluation, as well as the discovery of a contract from 1439: The predecessor town hall stood on the same spot as our current one, which was built there over the probable remains of the old one’s fire.

Due to the similarity of the decorative fittings of the interior doors to the cabinet door, it was previously thought that the latter was the former exterior door of the town hall; however, the nature of its design, the strength and thickness of the wood, and a groove incorporated on the inside to hold a shelf clearly characterize it as a piece of furniture from the Alsfeld Early Renaissance. (MNic)