ARCHITECTURAL AND SPATIAL CHANGESOF MARKET SQUARES
OF SILESIAN CITIES IN THE BAROQUE PERIOD

BOGNA LUDWIG

This study is dedicated to discussion of changes in the baroque period (from the end of the thirty year war until Prussian times) referring to basic elements shaping the most important urban space of a Silesian town – the market-place. It attempts to answer the question to what extent these changes determined the creation of a new spatial values and predefined in a new manner the character of the square. The study considers the process of establishing the dominant form of the market-place – the town hall tower with a helm, which became the characteristic symbol presents in panoramas of almost all Silesian towns. The town hall building itself was also subject to changes, from the shape of a mediaeval castle to a municipal palace. The walls of the market square were also altered. Tenement houses with Baroque gables emerged in the frontage, and later on, gabled buildings creating a continuous border. However, the most important changes of this urban space were introduced by new small architectural elements – statues and fountains. Market-places remained functional spaces in the baroque period, but also gained some elegant forms. It was not redefined but only enriched, for example with extended religious programs.