Passau Town Hall

Gothic and Baroque town hall with a carillon tower and lavishly painted grand hall

The Passau Town Hall stands at the point of the main market square closest to the Danube. The building's Gothic tower was added in the 14th century; the main hall was rebuilt in a Baroque style after the 1662 fire. The interior contains painted scenes from Passau's history and is open for guided tours in summer.

The flood marks etched into the outside wall at the main entrance document every major Danube flood since medieval times and are sobering to read. Passau floods regularly — the Danube, Inn, and Ilz form a natural collection basin for Alpine snowmelt — and the marks tell the story more vividly than any museum exhibit. The 2013 flood, visible near the top of the ground floor, remains the highest in recent memory.

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A story
The great hall of the Passau Town Hall is decorated with enormous 19th-century paintings commissioned to celebrate the city's history — but the flood marks etched into the main staircase are more revealing. Passau has flooded catastrophically many times, and the marks reach surprisingly high up the wall; the worst in recorded history, in 2013, came close to the top of the ground floor doors.