Ljubljana Town Hall (Magistrat) Tours and Activities

Located in Ljubljana’s vast cobbled square of Mestni Trg, the Baroque Magistrat was built in 1719 by Slovenian architect Gregor Maček and today contains the office of the mayor as well as being a popular landmark with visitors to this elegant, pocket-sized city. The town hall is approached by an impressive flight of steps, has an ornate whitewashed façade incorporating an arched Venetian-style balcony, and is topped with a fancy pediment and clock tower. This incarnation replaced the previous Gothic town hall, which was built in 1418 but subsequently destroyed in a violent earthquake in 1511.

A monument to Yugoslavia’s first king, Peter I, was erected in the entrance hall in the mid-1920s but this was destroyed by Italian Fascist troops when they occupied the city in 1941 – nowadays a 17th-century statue of Hercules the lion has taken its place. The walls are covered with oil paintings and there are often a couple of art or history exhibitions on the go in the pretty inner courtyard. Outside the Magistrat stands the Robba Fountain, one of the city’s best-loved Baroque monuments. It was the last masterpiece of Ljubljana sculptor Francesco Robba, completed in 1751 and depicting three river gods representing Slovenia’s main rivers.