Rådhuset

**Council House

The Town Hall was originally built in the 1470s as a church, the Church of the Holy Spirit, Helgeandskyrkan. The Reformation Diet of 1527 in Västerås made the state the owner of the church. In 1531 Gustav Vasa handed over Helgeandskyrkan to Arboga to be used as a town hall. But that was not quite what happened at first. It was not until the 1630s, during the reign of Queen Kristina, that the work was completed. The result was a grand and beautiful town hall that not many Swedish towns could match - albeit with two floors, not three as the Queen had wished. The town hall had a stately steeple with clock faces in all four directions. An elected clockmaker ensured that the clocks ran correctly. In the 1740s, Carl Hårleman, the foremost architect of the Age of Liberty, was hired to renovate the town hall. Unfortunately, the tower rider was then removed and with it the tower keeper, the guard who had watched over the city at night. Instead, the guards had to keep watch and sound the horn in the tower of Trinity Church. The elected mayors and councillors met in the town hall, and together they formed the magistrate, who also acted as the court. After 1862, the municipal council met in the town hall, together with the municipal board and other municipal committees. The large Town Hall room in the building then served as the Arbogasociety's large banquet hall and on the ground floor there was a police station with a detention room. Until 1855, when corporal punishment was abolished, shrill cries were sometimes heard from there as caning for men and spanking for women were carried out. The Town Hall is still the main hub and centre of the town. /Hans Almgren