Town halls
Build a town hall the way they were built in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain before 1900: from Brabant Gothic with a belfry to Dutch Renaissance with stepped gables, a half-timbered town hall, a French hôtel de ville or a Spanish town hall with corner towers. Choose the front, the roof, the tower, an arcade, a landing and balconies. Below you can see how everything is calculated.
Point at a block for the explanation. Click a block to mark it as placed. The side view shows the section at the chosen column, Layer shows the chosen layer from above.
Build plan
Per layer
| Layer | Parts | Blocks |
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A number is the count of blocks of that part in that layer, in the colour of the part. Click a layer to see it from above.
Build tips
- A town hall showed how rich and free a town was. That is why it often got a tower with bells, statues and a landing where decisions were read out.
- Glass in windows is always 1 block thick. In a thick wall the rest of the opening stays air.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the town hall as a schematic file and paste it with WorldEdit, or build it with a hologram in Litematica. Doors, glass, bells, banners and railings come along.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
Belfries and cloth halls in Flanders
From the 13th century the rich trading towns of Flanders built a belfry: a tall tower with the town bells, the archive with the town charters and a watchman who looked out for fire. The belfry showed that the town was free from its lord.
The belfry of Bruges got its lower part in the 13th century; the octagonal top was added later. The Cloth Hall of Ypres was finished in 1304 and was one of the largest trading buildings of the Middle Ages. It was destroyed in the First World War and built up again afterwards.
Brabant Gothic: Brussels and Leuven
The town hall of Brussels was built from 1401 to 1455. The tower is almost 100 metres high and carries a statue of the archangel Michael on top. Fronts full of pointed windows, pinnacles and statues became the example for other towns.
The town hall of Leuven, from 1448 to 1469, is smaller but even more richly decorated. In the 19th century more than 230 statues were placed in the niches of its fronts.
Town halls in the Low Countries
The town hall of Gouda, from 1448 to 1450, is one of the oldest Gothic town halls in the Netherlands. It stands in the middle of the market square, with a stepped gable, turrets and a landing from 1603.
In Leiden the town hall got a new Renaissance front of brick with sandstone in 1597. The town hall of Middelburg, built in the 15th and 16th centuries, was destroyed in 1940 and rebuilt afterwards.
The town hall of Amsterdam
The Royal Palace on Dam Square was built from 1648 to 1665 as the town hall of Amsterdam, after a design by Jacob van Campen. It was the largest town hall in Europe, in a classical style with a pediment and a domed tower.
The building stands on 13,659 wooden piles in the soft ground. In 1808 Louis Napoleon turned it into a royal palace.
The weigh house
In a weigh house goods were weighed, so the town could tax them. The weigh house of Gouda was built in 1668 by Pieter Post, with a relief of the weighing of cheese on its front.
In Alkmaar a chapel was turned into a weigh house in 1582. The famous cheese market is still held there.
Town halls in Germany
The town hall of Lübeck is one of the oldest in Germany, from the 13th century. It is made of brick, with black glazed bricks and a show wall with round openings that rises above the roof.
The town hall of Bremen is a Gothic hall from the 15th century that got a rich front in Weser Renaissance style in 1612. Together with the Roland statue on the square it is on the World Heritage List. In the Harz mountains stands the half-timbered town hall of Wernigerode, which got its oriel turrets around 1500.
The hôtel de ville in France
The town hall of Compiègne, from the early 16th century, is late Gothic with a belfry and statues on its front. The mansard roof is named after the French architect François Mansart, who lived from 1598 to 1666.
The Hôtel de Ville of Paris burned down in 1871 and was built again from 1874 to 1882 in neo-Renaissance style, with pavilions, tall slate roofs and more than 100 statues.
Spain: ayuntamiento and plaza mayor
The town hall of Seville was built from 1527 to 1564 in the Plateresque style: the stone is carved so finely that it looks like the work of a silversmith, a platero. The Casa de la Villa in Madrid, from 1644 to 1696, is made of brick and granite with towers with slate spires.
The Plaza Mayor of Salamanca was built from 1729 to 1755. An arcade runs all around the square, and the town hall stands in the middle of one side, with a bell gable on top.
Did you know?
- The word belfry does not come from bell. It comes from the old German word bercfrit, a defensive tower.
- The town hall of Brussels is not symmetrical: the left wing is longer than the right one.
- The Royal Palace on Dam Square stands on 13,659 wooden piles. In the Netherlands that number is a well-known fact.
- A Roland statue in front of a town hall, as in Bremen, showed that the town had its own rights.
- The belfries of Belgium and France are together on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
About this tool
With this Minecraft town hall generator you build a town hall or government building from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France or Spain, in a style from before 1900. You choose from fifteen combinations of country and period, such as Brabant Gothic, a Flemish cloth hall with a belfry, Dutch Renaissance, the classicism of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, a weigh house, Lübeck brick Gothic, a half-timbered town hall, Weser Renaissance, a French hôtel de ville and Spanish town halls with corner towers or an arcade.
You set the number of bays, the window width, the number of storeys and the depth. The roof is a gable roof, hip roof, mansard roof, flat roof with balustrade or a row of front gables: stepped, scroll, neck, bell or plain gables. An arcade, a landing with a double stair, balconies, stone bands, statues on brackets, pinnacles, pilasters, a pediment, half-timbering and a show wall finish the front.
As the tower you choose a belfry, a ridge turret, two corner towers, a domed tower, a raised central pavilion or oriel turrets, with a clock and a coat of arms above the entrance. Nineteen examples help you start, such as the town halls of Brussels, Leuven, Gouda, Leiden, Bremen and Seville, the Royal Palace in Amsterdam and the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca.
The tool counts the blocks per kind, with a build plan per layer, a 3D preview and a .schem download for WorldEdit and Litematica. This way you build a town hall in Minecraft as the centre of your town. For the rest of the town there are City gates, Dutch gables and Lamp posts and street decor.
Frequently asked questions
How big should a town hall be in Minecraft?
A small town hall or weigh house is 3 to 5 bays wide and 2 storeys high. A big town hall like Brussels or Antwerp has 11 to 15 bays and 3 or 4 storeys. Storeys of 5 layers leave room for windows 3 high and a floor.
What is a bay?
A bay is one window with the piece of wall beside it. A front is a row of bays. With an odd number the entrance comes exactly in the middle, with as many windows left as right.
How do I build a stepped or scroll gable?
Choose a row of front gables under Roof, or switch on the tall central gable, and pick the shape. A stepped gable steps in 2 blocks every 2 layers; lay a slab on every step. A scroll gable steps in every 3 layers and gets upside-down stairs as scrolls. For separate canal houses there is Dutch gables.
How do I make a belfry with bells?
Choose a belfry in the middle of the front under Tower. At the top of the tower there is an open bell storey with a bell; above it stands an octagonal lantern with a spire. Switch on Clock for a 3 × 3 clock face on the tower.
How many blocks do I need?
It is shown at the top under Total. A weigh house is a few thousand blocks, a big town hall with a belfry easily 10,000 or more. Add the town hall to your shopping list to see everything per kind of block.
Can I build this in Bedrock?
Yes. The front view and the build plan per layer work in every version. The .schem file is for Java Edition with WorldEdit or Litematica.