The 16th-century Oświęcim city hall was located in the centre of the town square. In 1863, it was completely destroyed as a result of a great fire that struck the city. It was then that the City Council, which was temporarily renting space in the Ślebarski tenement house, started to apply for permanent new premises. In 1873, a plot of land was bought from Anna Kowalska for the construction of a new City Hall. The construction work took place in 1874–1875. Leopold Michl from Oświęcim and, later, Emanuel Rost from Bielsk were in charge of it. The new building in the neogothic style was erected on the southern side of the Main Square, number 2. The town hall building became the seat of the City Council on 1 November 1875. A clock made by Carl Weiss’ company was placed on the façade of the building in the following year and replaced in 2001. The Town Hall was the seat of the municipal authorities until the outbreak of the World War II and the mayor of Oświęcim Roman Mayzel worked there between 1909 and 1935. In 1939–1945, the German authorities included it in the anti-artillery defence system in the town centre by connecting it to a bunker located in the central part of the square via an underground corridor. After the war, the communist authorities took over the building and made it the seat of the District Public Security Office. The Citizens’ Police Headquarters and the Selective Service System were located here in the 1970s. After 1980, the town hall building housed the Society of Oświęcim Land Lovers, Old Town Estate Council and its ‘Oświęcimska Starówka’ Club. The town flag has been flying above the town hall tower since 1993 and the Oświęcim bugle call composed by Aleksander Orłowski can be heard at noon every day. The building was renovated in 2013–2017. A new branch of the Castle Museum in Oświęcim has been located in the town hall building since 20 July 2018. It allows the locals and tourists from Poland and abroad to learn about the long history of the town at the interactive bilingual exhibition ‘W przestrzeniach historii – dzieje miasta Oświęcimia’ (In Spaces of History – the History of Oświęcim).