The Galați City Hall (Primăria Municipiului Galați) is the headquarters of the municipal administration, located on Strada Domnească beside the Administrative Palace in central Galați. Opened in 2017, the present building was the first headquarters created specifically for the municipality after a long history of operating from rented, purchased, or adapted premises.
One of the most important of these earlier headquarters was the Lambrinidi House, which the municipality purchased in 1907. At the time, however, the building was used by the Court of Appeal, and it later became home to the Mihail Kogălniceanu Girls’ High School. Only after repairs following the earthquake of 1940 did the municipal administration move into the house, in 1941.
The Lambrinidi House served as the City Hall and later as the headquarters of the city’s Popular Council until 1968, when the administration transferred to the nationalized former Grand Hotel. That building continued to house the municipality after 1990, but its eventual restitution to private ownership left the City Hall occupying the property as a tenant until the move to the present headquarters in 2017.
The current building grew out of an unfinished concrete structure begun before 1990 for a hall intended for political meetings and performances. Popularly nicknamed the “Sala Aplaudacilor,” or “Hall of Applause,” the abandoned frame stood incomplete for decades before the municipality took over the site in 2012. A new design incorporated the surviving structure into a purpose-built administrative headquarters, with construction carried out from 2014 to 2017.
The completed building is organized around a large internal atrium covered by a glazed roof, with public-facing departments concentrated on the lower levels and administrative offices above. A circular staircase links the main public areas, while the complex also contains the City Council chamber, meeting rooms, archives, and other municipal facilities.
