Qesrir Town Hall

The Town Hall is a building in the city center district of the city of Qesrir. It faces out into the town square and is the largest building in the immediate vicinity, which it needs to be in order to be able to perform its administrative functions.

Purpose / Function

The town hall serves as Qesrir's administrative center. It is the headquarters of the mayoral office, the city council, and the office of the local harus. Prior to 280.30 NL, Qesrir Town Hall also served as the headquarters of the regional division of the Imperial Union Guard but they have since moved to a new building in the Hazriha.
Furthermore, the town hall also serves as a place for public participation in government, where hearings for local initiatives and legislation are held prior to any major city council vote. The town hall also hosts regular public sessions, giving residents a forum where they can air their grievances and discuss issues pertinent to the community. These sessions also help to ensure the public accountability of local representatives through question-and-answer portions where residents can question their elected officials on various matters.
When otherwise not in use for official functions, the main hall of the building is available to be rented out for special occasions such as convocation, graduation, and commencement ceremonies for the various educational institutions in the city, weddings, and other such major events.

Alterations

Other than the stone ground floor, very little remains of the original wood structure that the town hall was built with. Normal wear and tear over the years led to the gradual replacement of parts of the original wood building until a major fire in 612.29 NL destroyed the town hall along with many of the immediately-surrounding structures. Hassir ar'Aban, an architect hailing from the east of the Sharan peninsula was hired to draw up new plans for the repairs as the original plans had been destroyed in the fire. He incorporated aspects of eastern Sharan culture in the design, which was hailed as exotic and revolutionary at the time.
A second major fire destroyed the entirety of the eastern wing and much of the central portion of the building in 833.29 NL. They were rebuilt shortly thereafter, with the town council temporarily operating out of the courthouse while repairs were underway. At this time, the grand abaz windows that decorated the front of the building in the Hassir plans were left out of the repairs due to time and budgetary constraints.
Though some minor disasters and fires after the fire of 833.29 NL required further repairs to the building, the abaz windows were never replaced until a particularly wet monsoon season in 122.30 NL provided an opportunity. Known in local folklore as "the year of the termite," the long, wet monsoon of 122.30 NL provided the perfect conditions for a boom in the local termite population. Local legends suggest that the swarm of termites in the aftermath of the monsoon was so thick that the Suncatch Festival had to be cancelled halfway through. While most buildings survived the following years needing only minor repairs, the termite problem at the town hall proved more insidious.
After spending a significant amount of money on repairs, it was decided that it might be in the best interest of the city to tear down the town hall and rebuild it instead of having to patch up large portions due to termite infestation every other year or so. In 130.30 NL, the town hall was torn down and rebuilt yet again, this time reproducing Hassir's original plans faithfully, with the exception of the abaz windows which were made locally rather than sourced from the east.

Founding Date

403.29 NL

Type

Ministry / City hall

Parent Location

Qesrir Town Square

Ruling/Owning Rank

Pale Imperator

Owning Organization

Dominion