Elias Holl, the city's Master Builder, designed the Augsburg Town Hall in the Renaissance style, and it is one of the most significant secular Renaissance buildings north of the Alps. The foundation stone was laid on August 25, 1615, the exterior was finished in 1620 and the interior in 1624. It replaced a Gothic town hall of 1385 and cost about 100,000 guilders. Holl insisted on onion domes at the gable, which were approved in 1618.
The Golden Hall covers about 5,940 square feet (552 square meters) under a ceiling 46 feet (14 meters) high. Johann Matthias Kager designed its interior, completed in 1643, and it is a key late German Renaissance monument.
British bombing in the Second World War burned the exterior and badly damaged the Golden Hall. The exterior was rebuilt, and the Golden Hall reopened in 1985.
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