[citation needed] The rigid elegance of the large stonework was similar to Florence, the cultural and financial capital of Northern Italy, with which the city gladly compared itself.

The view of the Rathaus was almost completely blocked by the stock exchange building built in 1828, until British bombing on the night of 25 February 1944 destroyed the latter.

The original Augsburger Rathaus was built in 1385, and it was decided at the beginning of the seventeenth century to complete a simple renovation of it in order to accommodate the Imperial Reichstag, which then sat in the city.

Elias Holl produced his plan for the new Augsburger Rathaus, which was to be built in the Renaissance style, and, on 25 August 1615, the foundation stone was laid.

Only once more, in the late 17th Century, was the Rathaus the scene of a celebration of nationwide importance, when Joseph I held a banquet in the Golden Hall in 1690, on his coronation as King of the Romans.

Inside the Renaissance building, what had been damaged in the Golden Hall during the war was restored to its original splendour, and on 9 January 1985, the Rathaus was reopened as part of the city's two-thousandth anniversary celebrations.

The visitor enters the Augsburger Rathaus through an inconspicuous door at the front of the building, through a vestibule and into the Lower Fletz, on the ground floor.

The numerous ceiling paintings and murals were executed according to a concept of the Jesuit Matthäus Raders (1561 - 1634) and designs by the Flemish artist Peter Candid (1584-1628).

When the Rathaus was restored after the war, the Goldener Saal was not repaired to its original state, but left with a wooden ceiling, small doors and white plastered walls.

Each room is around 150 square metres (1,600 sq ft) with coffered ceiling, panelled walls and parquet floors, and containing elaborately carved writing desks, tables, chairs and stools and several lamps.