The former County Hall, a protected cultural site, is a four-wing building located in the square where the Upper and Lower Towns meet and it serves at the same time as the entrance gate to the Upper Town.

The County Hall was built as a late baroque palace probably on the original foundations in 1823. It was expanded in 1874–76 (project by the architect Edön Dümmerling) and in 1903-08 completely rebuilt in the Art Nouveau style (project by V. Czígler, supervised by the developer J. Tomaschek). 

The County Hall was the seat of the Nitra region with short breaks until 1945. Janko Jesenský, an important Slovak writer, worked here as a head of regional administration in 1923-28.  After the regional reorganization,  the space was provided to the local state organs and organizations. In 1983 the property was transmitted to the administration of the Nitra Gallery that became its main user.

The mound situated in the neighbourhood of the eastern wing of the building served in the 17th century as a defensive wall during the period of Turkish wars. The gallery garden is situated in the area called Upper Palanok. In the past there were organized different cultural events, evenings at the fountain, concerts, exhibitions and the summer reading room for the public. In 1990-97 four archeological researches took place in the area of the former County Hall. They resulted into several extraordinary findings (the rests of the medieval architecture dated from the 12th-15th century, the rests of the early Ugrian defensive wall from the middle of the 11th century, the grave with two children skeletons from the early Bronze Age, but also ceramics from the 9th-11th century and others) which contributed on a large scale to the explanation of the archelogic situation of this part of the town.

At present, the building has been housing the Nitra Gallery and the chairman of the Nitra Self- governing region.

County Hall
Photo: Club of old Nitra’s friends