Kamianets-Podilskyi Town Hall. One of Ukraine’s oldest town halls, with a bell tower on Polish Market Square and a medieval court in its vaults

The Kamianets-Podilskyi Town Hall in autumn
The Town Hall tower and the Armenian Well in Kamianets-Podilskyi
The arcade and stairs of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Town Hall
The Kamianets-Podilskyi Town Hall tower against the sky
The Old Town of Kamianets-Podilskyi with the Town Hall from above
The Kamianets-Podilskyi Town Hall in autumnThe Town Hall tower and the Armenian Well in Kamianets-PodilskyiThe arcade and stairs of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Town HallThe Kamianets-Podilskyi Town Hall tower against the skyThe Old Town of Kamianets-Podilskyi with the Town Hall from above

The Town Hall on Polish Market Square is the heart of the Old Town of Kamianets-Podilskyi and one of the oldest town halls in Ukraine. Its history begins in 1374, when the town received Magdeburg rights and its own self-government. An eight-tier bell tower with a clock rises above the two-story magistrate building, and the underground rooms recreate the court of medieval Kamianets.

Why visit

  • One of the oldest town halls in Ukraine, whose history began with the Magdeburg rights of 1374
  • The eight-tier bell tower with a clock, the main vertical of Polish Market Square and the whole Old Town
  • The exhibition “The Court of Medieval Kamianets” in the underground rooms: wax figures, an executioner’s tools and the atmosphere of the dungeons
  • Halls on Magdeburg law and self-government, which shaped the town’s life for centuries, and on the history of money
  • A blend of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Empire: the tower and the council house were joined after the fire of 1616
  • The Armenian Well of 1638 next door and a handy starting point for a walk through the Old Town to the fortress

Good to know

Ticket prices
Admission is UAH 80 for adults and UAH 25 for school students, university students and pensioners; university students and pensioners show a document for the discount.
Opening hours
The Town Hall is open every day: on Monday from 9:00 to 16:00, Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 17:00.
Best shots
The most striking angle is the town hall tower together with the Armenian Well, seen from Polish Market Square. In autumn the square is framed by golden trees, and in the evening the tower is lit up.
Good to know
The underground exhibition has wax figures and an executioner’s tools, so with the youngest visitors it is worth deciding in advance whether to go down there.
Getting there
The Town Hall stands in the center of the Old Town on Polish Market Square. Bridges over the Smotrych canyon lead here from the newer part of town, including the Novoplanivskyi Bridge, and the Old Fortress is a 10–15 minute walk away.

The building of the Polish magistrate dates from the late 14th–16th centuries. At first the council house and the bell tower stood apart, three meters from each other, and after the fire of 1616 they were joined into a single ensemble. Over the centuries Renaissance, Baroque and Empire layers were added to the Gothic base, which is why the town hall stands out so much among the buildings of the square. Medieval Kamianets was home to three communities, Polish, Ukrainian and Armenian, and each had its own self-government and court. This building was where the Polish magistrate sat. During the 1981 reconstruction an old clock face that originally decorated the tower was found on its fourth tier. Since 1967 the building has belonged to the Kamianets-Podilskyi State Historical Museum-Reserve. The town hall’s exhibitions tell about Magdeburg law and town self-government in Podillia and about the history of money, and in 2001 the exhibition “The Court of Medieval Kamianets” opened in three basement rooms: wax figures and an executioner’s tools recreate how justice was done in the dungeons. Next to the town hall stands the Armenian Well, a building over the town well erected in 1638 with money an Armenian merchant left in his will for the town water supply. Polish Market Square is the main square of the Old Town and a handy place to start a walk to the Old Fortress.