The Town Hall Tower

Rynek Główny 1,Kraków http://www.krakow.pl/english/instcbi/36882,inst,12410,1241,instcbi.html

About

The tower is the only remnant of the building of Kraków Town Hall, which reached halfway into the Main Square. From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, the Town Hall was the headquarters of the municipal authorities. It was built around 1300 as a 2-storey stone construction, with a tower that served both defensive purposes and as a symbol of power and elegance. During the following centuries, the town hall building and its tower were repeatedly rebuilt. The most important of the halls in the tower was the so-called Izba Pańska (literally "the Lords' chamber", it was at the same time the council assembly chamber and the courtroom). Its rich furnishing was to be proof of the solemnity and dignity of the Kraków authorities. Its decoration included a coffered ceiling similar to the ones in the Wawel, a portal with a door decorated with inlay (today at Collegium Maius) and window frames with columns. To keep the proper balance and to keep everyone forewarned, the cellars of the Town Hall housed a prison with its own torture chamber. Beginning in the 18th century, the building received only minor temporary repairs, and therefore succumbed to a gradual deterioration. In 1817-1820, as part of the campaign to "beautify" the city, the derelict and abandoned building of the Town Hall was taken down even though its reconstruction and development were possible. Only the tower was left as a souvenir. In the 1780s, it received a classicist guardhouse. A new, neo-Gothic guardhouse was built in 1881-1882 only to be removed after the second world war as a symbol of the Austrian government from the time of the Partition of Poland. Until 1934, the ceremonial changing of the guard took place every day in front of the guardhouse. Built from limestone and brick, the preserved tower used to be one of the most opulent towers in mediaeval Poland. During the renovation and reconstruction works carried out in the 1960s, its cellars were developed into a café that followed in the footsteps of the establishment that earned great renown in the Middle Ages as it served best beer in Poland (from Świdnica). Since 1987, the cellars also house a stage of the Ludowy Theatre.