Continuing my walk, I reached the market square. I immediately felt that I was in the center of the city's tourist area. The Market Square does not provide any options for spending your money. Here you have the opportunity to ride in a beautiful carriage drawn by a pair of beautiful horses, and small excursion buses, and throw a coin at a living sculpture, and many cafes along the perimeter of the square.
Let's start with the main building of the square, which is the hallmark of the city, St. Mary's Church. The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in common parlance St. Mary's Church, is a Catholic church of Gothic architecture, the facade of which consists of two high towers. One of them, 80 meters high, was considered a guard tower in the Middle Ages.
The Gothic stained glass windows of the cathedral are considered one of the most valuable in Poland. In 1962, the church received the title of minor basilica. According to information from the website krakow.ru, tourists can enter the church only through a special entrance and for money. I looked for this entrance for a long time, but never found it, so I entered the central entrance together with local parishioners, took a few shots and got these photos.
Then I walked around the church on the right side and ended up on a small St. Mary’s Square. On it stands a fountain with a figurine depicting a poor student - Jacques. This fountain is a gift to the city of Krakow artisans; delivered in 1958. The figure was copied from the altar of Vit Stwosz.
It must be said that in the Middle Ages, there was a church cemetery here (as it should be with every church). And only when the Austrians came to the city did they decide to “restore order” and remove the cemetery from the central square.
In the center of that cemetery there was a chapel, on the site of which the Church of St. Barbara was later built.
You can enter the church through the central entrance. In the Middle Ages, St. Mary's Church was maintained through donations from wealthy townspeople. Wawel Church was a royal one, and rich townsfolk gathered here. Among the rich families of the city there were approximately equal numbers of Poles and Germans, so by the end of the 14th century, services in St. Mary’s Church were held in two languages: Polish and German. And then only in German, and services in Polish were moved to the neighboring Church of St. Barbara.
The situation changed only in 1537, when the Krakow philistinism was “Polonized.”
“Polonization” took place in a very peculiar way: rich families were given a choice - either they start speaking Polish, or there is no place for them in Krakow. As you can see, “volitional decisions” are far from a Soviet invention. :-)
Thus, services in German were now moved to the neighboring Church of St. Barbara. Where sometimes they take place to this day.
Legend has it that St. Barbara's Church was built from "surplus" material that remained from the construction of St. Mary's Church. And even the builders of St. Mary’s Church built it as a “hack job” in their free time.
However, in fact, this church was built in 1394-1399.
Near the western entrance there is a carved Gothic heliport from the 15th century. Inside the church there are paintings by Tomaso Dolabella, representing scenes from the life of St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis Borgia and the suffering of St. Catherine. Father Jakub Wujek, a Bible translator who died in 1597, is buried under the church.
If you go around the church on the left, then through a nice nook you can get to the Small Market. Appearing already in 1257, it initially served as an auxiliary market place in Krakow. At first, they sold exclusively meat and the famous Krakow sausages, and since the last century - vegetables. The pavement of the square has a slight slope to the south. From the east it is closed by a number of medieval buildings, from the west - by buildings that are part of the ensemble of the Church of St. Barbara.
In summer, Krakow's Lesser Market turns into a small open-air cafeteria, with numerous tables and colorful umbrellas, where you can take a short break without losing contact with Krakow's attractions. In cold or rainy weather, guests of the city can enjoy restaurants, cafes and taverns on the first floors of buildings.
We return back and at St. Mary’s Church we meet this woman, all in white. This “White Lady” is not just a “living figure” - she is a character from a Krakow legend. According to legend, meeting the ghost of a white lady promises misfortune. The living embodiment is more harmless; the only danger that awaits you is being smeared with white paint. As befits a ghost, the chosen victim (usually local boys) can be pursued by the “white lady” for quite a long time.
And then in front of us is a monument to the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. At the base of the monument there are 4 allegorical figures: towards the street. Sienna - Fatherland, st. Florianska - science, to the Cloth Hall - courage, and to the Church of St. Wojciech - poetry.
The monument we see is a copy. When the Germans occupied the city, they began the destruction of Polish culture by demolishing monuments to the great Poles. This monument was demolished in 1940, the Germans demolished the monument; and it was restored in 1955 on the hundredth anniversary of the poet’s death.
Just behind the monument is one of the oldest architectural monuments in Krakow - the Cloth Hall. The name of this structure comes from the word “cloth”, because. these rows were built specifically for the trade of this product. The decree on the construction of this structure was given by King Boleslav V the Shy in the middle of the 13th century. The building consisted of several cloth rows connected under one roof. The modern building was built in the 14th century by King Casimir the Great. After the fire in 1555, it was rebuilt, various decorations and mascarons (masks) appeared.
They say that the prototypes for the mascarons were the faces of city leaders (apparently, in those years the authorities were not particularly favored either).
The Cloth Hall acquired its modern appearance in 1879 after reconstruction under the direction of the architect Tomasz Priliński, when arcade rows were added to it.
Inside the Cloth Hall today there are souvenir shops, and on the second floor there is an exhibition of the national museum (opened in 1879); the entrance to it is located to the right of the central arch from the side of St. Mary's Church. On the doors hangs a list of all the museums in the old city with addresses, opening hours and ticket prices.
In addition to souvenir shops, there are several cafes and restaurants on the ground floor of the building.
There is a knife hanging in the Cloth Hall arch facing the monument. According to legend, one of the builders of St. Mary’s Church stabbed his brother with this knife (however, I promised not to tell this legend here).
According to another legend, thieves' ears were cut off with this knife. Those. for the first time they cut off their hair (in those days men’s hair was long, they didn’t cut it almost bald, as it is now), and it was immediately clear: anyone without hair is a thief. Well, if the hair was already cut off, then the ears were already cut off.
The most unusual attraction on Market Square, which is a little dissonant with the surrounding architecture, is Igor’s creation “Bound Eros” (Eros Bendato). This monument is a huge head, 3.7 m wide and 2.25 m high.
And nearby is another most recognizable object of the city - the Town Hall Tower. Townspeople compare it to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The reason is the tilt of the tower. Although the slope is only 55 cm (if you count from the base), but due to the high height (70 m), this relatively small slope is very noticeable and this attracts crowds of tourists who want to be photographed against its background. There are many legends telling about the mysterious tilt of the Town Hall Tower, but the only correct explanation is the fact that in 1703 a strong wind caused a slight deviation in the perpendicularity of the tower. Since then, the angle of inclination has gradually increased.
Today it houses a department of the Krakow History Museum (open only in summer), and in the basement there is a theater stage. In addition, you can climb the tower and admire the city from its height.
Near the town hall tower, a memorial plaque was installed on the spot where on March 24, 1794, the leader of the popular uprising, Tadeusz Kościuszko, took the oath of allegiance to the people.
And in 1918, with Poland gaining independence, symbols of the outgoing Austrian power were placed at the foot of the town hall.
A little further, behind the town hall there is a glass piggy bank for collecting donations - Skarbonka [skarbonka]. This place is also popular among Krakow residents as a meeting place. When a Krakow resident speaks of a meeting “pod skarbonka” [under the skarbonkon] - they mean exactly this piggy bank.
But let's return again to the other side of the Sukennits. Opposite the town hall you see the low building of the Church of St. Wojciech. St. Wojciech read his sermons here.
This is one of the oldest churches in Krakow, built at the end of the 11th century. Today most of it is underground, but it once stood normally, so you can imagine the height of the Market Square in those days. In the 17th century, the church received a baroque dome.
In the dungeons of the church there is now an exhibition of the archaeological museum dedicated to the history of the Market Square. The exposition is very small and does not arouse much interest. We will examine the houses along the perimeter of the square in the next part.
Cultural and historical center of Krakow; one of the most popular squares. This square is even considered one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. It is pedestrian and always full of tourists. Poles have long loved to trade fish, meat, bread, salt and coal here. Today the Market Square is full of entertainment for every taste. It is included in the version of our website.
Its main architectural objects are the monument to A. Mickiewicz, St. Mary's Cathedral and the Sukennice building. It has always been customary for friends, sports fans, etc. to gather around the monument to the famous Polish poet A. Mickiewicz. In addition to this sculpture, there is also a new surreal object on the square - “Bound Eros”. It is especially interesting to visit the 120-meter-high Sukkenice building, the entire lower floor of which is occupied by shopping arcades. On the top floor there is an exhibition of the Art Museum.
The shape of the Market Square, or the “main market” as it is often called by local residents, resembles a regular square. The square is surrounded on all sides by ancient buildings, many of which house cafes. Entertainment includes street artists, musicians and other performers. Nowadays you often come across “living sculptures” with which you can take a photo. The Town Hall tower today houses the Historical Museum, and St. Mary's Cathedral is considered one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in Europe.
Finding the Market Square will not be difficult, as it is located in the heart of the Old Town. You can get here by many Krakow trams, for example 1, 6, 8.
Photo attraction: Krakow Market Square
Either from Wawel or from the Florian Gate, you will definitely end up at the Main Market. Florianskaya Street can be compared to Arbat, and the Market, by analogy with Moscow, is, of course, Red Square. Only the Główny Market is much more humane than our official, pompous, sepulchral main square.
The main market of Krakow dates back to 1257, when King Bolesław the Bashful granted the Magdeburg Law to the city. Then, in the center of Krakow, they planned a huge square area measuring about 4.3 hectares. For comparison, Red Square in Moscow occupies about 5 hectares. Krakow's main square seems too large and spacious for a cramped medieval city. Until the 19th century, the Główny Market was densely built up: there were more than 400 shops in the square, plus a town hall, a vazhnya (weighing house), and a city barn. In the 19th century, during the time of Emperor Franz Joseph, the “city fathers,” contemptuously calling Krakow an “architectural dump,” carried out a total “cleanup” of the Main Market. Miraculously, only the town hall tower survived...
Renaissance cloth rows – the famous Krakow Cloth Hall... 
and the tiny church of St. Wojciech, sunk into the ground. 
It’s not for nothing that the square is called Główny Rynek: in the old days, in many shops there was a trade in everything that your heart desires. Between the rows of shops there were little markets selling their special goods: salt, fish, bread, meat. The market was noisy, crowded and unsafe - the rich city attracted not only nobles, merchants and artisans, scientists and scholars, but also lovers of easy money. For dashing people, the medieval law was harsh: either execution or expulsion from the city for “100 years and 1 day.” In case of expulsion, the criminal was publicly flogged in the square, and then they were escorted out of the city along Slavkovskaya Street, starting in the north-western corner of the square. This street had a bad reputation: behind the Slavkovskaya Gate, in a vacant lot, lesser villains were executed, and for murderers and robbers, a gallows or scaffold was erected in the square itself, where Slavkovskaya Street begins. 
Street St. The mark, running along the northern side of the Old Town, led to the executioner's tower. In the old days, only master craftsmen were addressed as “maestros,” which is why the street was formerly called the Workshop. The executioner was branded with the contempt of medieval townspeople and lived separately from everyone. In addition to executions, “defamation of criminals,” that is, cutting off their ears and burning the brand with a hot iron, the executioner also swept the streets, caught stray dogs and cleaned the city sewer. Thanks to his knowledge of anatomy, the “maestro” sometimes practiced healing. Those who could not pay a doctor or wanted to keep their illness a secret resorted to his services. In Krakow, the executioners were often Germans; the Poles abhorred this craft. 
Less severe punishments were also used to maintain the rule of law. On the square in front of the Spissky palace there was a pillory and a cage. Fraudsters condemned to public disgrace were chained to the pillory. Tradeswomen who deceived customers or violated trade rules were imprisoned in cages. Any Krakow resident, passing by these instruments of justice, superstitiously spat over his shoulder, secretly fearing that he would be a candidate for execution. 
In the 19th century, with the decline of Krakow, the medieval market also disappeared. The shops were demolished, the first floors of the old houses were rebuilt into shops and restaurants. Only the city bazaar remained on the square, and then in a truncated form. After the war they wanted to abolish it, but the city residents managed to defend the flower market. It is located opposite the entrance to St. Mary's Church.
The geometrically correct rectangle of the Market is broken only in two places: in the northeast it departs at an angle from the square.
Krakow. Main market. St. Mary's Church.
And in the northwestern corner, diagonally facing the square is a marvelous - probably the most famous symbol of Krakow. In 1241, the Romanesque temple that stood here was destroyed during Batu's raid. In its place they begin to build a new Gothic cathedral. The main nave and the lower part of the towers date back to the 13th century, the presbytery and vaults were built in the 14th century. The construction of St. Mary's Church lasted almost 100 years. 
There is a dark legend about the church towers in Krakow. The towers were built by 2 brothers. The elder, more experienced, was the first to finish his tower and set off to distant lands. Returning to Krakow, he found his younger brother's tower far from being completed. However, with the experienced eye of an architect, he assessed its strength and realized that this tower would be much taller than his own. Envy clouded his mind, he rushed at his younger brother with a knife and killed him. The tower remained unfinished. But the elder brother could not live with such sin in his soul. He repented to people of his crime and threw himself down from the unfinished tower. According to another version, he inflicted a mortal wound on himself with the same knife. This bloody story shocked Krakow so much that the “city fathers” ordered the names of the brother-architects to be erased from the city books, and because of earthly pride they neglected the highest goal for which the cathedral was built. The unfinished tower was never completed for the edification of descendants; later it was covered with a helmet. Also, city councilors decided to hang the knife with which the murder was committed at the entrance to the Cloth Hall opposite St. Mary's Church. 
The main nave of the church rises 28 meters (like a 9-story building), and in the depths of the church there is one of the main artistic treasures not only of Krakow, but of all of Poland. This is the altar of St. Mary's Church. 
This carved miracle was created by master Veit Stoss, originally from Nuremberg. In Polish sources he is called Wit Stwosz. The carver worked on it from 1477 to 1489. This is the largest carved altar of medieval Europe. Its dimensions are 11x13 m. The altar consists of a central part depicting the coronation of the Virgin Mary and 4 wings covering it. On the wings the master carved 12 episodes from the life of the Mother of God. The altar was repaired and renovated many times, and almost always unsuccessfully. Authentic Gothic polychrome was repeatedly repainted and gilded in the 17th-18th centuries. During the occupation, “art connoisseur” fascist governor Hans Frank ordered the altar to be dismantled and taken to Germany. In 1946, Professor Karl Oestreicher found it in the dungeons of Nuremberg Castle and returned it to Poland. Since 1957, the altar has again taken its place in St. Mary's Church. 
Veit Stoss or, in Polish, Wit Stwosz, was from Nuremberg. In 1477, at the age of 32, he renounced his rights as a citizen of Nuremberg and moved to Krakow, where he gave 22 years of his long and difficult life. He devoted 12 years of them to creating the altar. Here is how the Polish poet Konstanz Idelfons Galczynski wrote about it:
And how the night turned pale over the forest
To that over-the-river workshop
Again the master came in and cut
Hands, souls and human flesh,
And he cut shirts and fur coats,
Bethlehem divas and miracles
And Mary's tender lips
And the crooked lips of Judas;
Marked golden stars,
Below are round apples,
I myself marveled: oh, how bright you are,
That block of linden wood!
With the return to Nuremberg in 1496, a streak of misfortune began for Wit Stwosz. He lost his fortune to a bankrupt banker and tried to forge a bill. For this he was branded an executioner and imprisoned in prison. Upon leaving prison, he is haunted by a streak of failures that lead the master to death in poverty and obscurity.
Krakow took his heart,
Like an apple from a branch.
And, not mourned by anyone,
He disappeared in Nuremberg.
The vaults of the cathedral are covered with beautiful paintings done by Jan Matejko. It creates the effect of a starry sky. 
In a small square lying to the south of the church, there is a figurine of a craftsman - an exact copy of the figure from the altar of St. Mary's Church. It was created by Krakow artisans in 1958 in memory of Wit Stwosz. 
On the same square in the back stands the Church of St. Barbara, erected in the 15th century according to the common vow of Krakow builders and miners, because St. Barbara patronizes both. According to legend, it was built from bricks left over from the construction of St. Mary's Church. 
The most valuable of its decoration is a marble sculptural group depicting the mourning of Christ, the so-called “Pieta” (from the Italian “sorrow”). 
You can walk past the Church of St. Barbara to the Small Market. Once upon a time, it sold exclusively the famous Krakow sausages. Of course, we couldn’t resist and bought a couple. I affirm: it is difficult to call what is sold under this name in our country sausage, not to mention its taste. 
Krakow. Main market. Sukennitsa
We return again to Główny Market to another symbol of Kraków – the famous Cloth Hall or Cloth Hall. Once upon a time, even before the reconstruction of the city in 1257, there was a shopping street here. On its sides there were shops of merchants, and the exits were closed with wooden bars. In 1380, on the site of the shops, the construction of shopping arcades began, intended exclusively for the sale of cloth. Construction took 20 years under the direction of stone mason Martin Lindenthold. And 155 years later, in the middle of the 16th century, a serious fire damaged the Cloth Hall so much that they had to be completely rebuilt. The Italian architect Giovanni il Mosca from Padua covered the shopping gallery with a new vault, added a second floor, where he placed a hall for ceremonial meetings and hid it behind a solemn Renaissance attic. Attic Sukiennitz served as a model for similar decorations both in Poland and in neighboring Slovakia. In the 18th century, the large hall of the Cloth Hall became the venue for ceremonial receptions. The last Polish king, Stanislaw August, was honored here, then his nephew, Prince Józef Poniatowski, and balls were held in honor of Napoleon and the King of Saxony, Friedrich August. Later, zealous fighters against “historical garbage” almost destroyed the Cloth Hall. The symbol of Krakow was saved by the townspeople themselves, who raised funds for repairs. Soon after the war in devastated Poland, money was found for a major restoration of the Cloth Hall. Nowadays there are souvenir shops downstairs, and in the halls of the 2nd floor there is an exhibition of Polish painting from the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. 
Not far from the beginning of Grodzka Street stands the smallest and perhaps the oldest church in Krakow. More than a thousand years ago, here, among the dense forests, St. Wojciech (Adalbert) preached to the pagans. In the 10th century, a wooden temple was built here. The current one, built of limestone, dates back to 1100. Its ancient part went deep underground and turned into a crypt, and in the 17th century the walls were built on and covered with a baroque dome.
History of the town hall. Town Hall Tower.
Finally, in the south-eastern corner of the square, the Town Hall tower rises alone. Once upon a time it crowned a whole complex of buildings: next to it stood the 14th-century town hall itself and a Renaissance barn attached to it. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was decided to demolish the barn due to its disrepair, and rebuild the town hall into a theater. After the demolition of the barn, the walls of the town hall began to show huge cracks. There was nothing left to do but take it apart. They also wanted to demolish the tower, but, fortunately, they left it alone. This is what the town hall ensemble looked like during the heyday of the city.
The town hall tower was completed in 1383. From the 14th to the 16th centuries it was repeatedly built on and expanded. At the beginning of the 17th century, lightning struck the tower's spire, the tower caught fire and threatened to collapse. It was necessary to erect a powerful buttress, which saved the tower from being “overwhelmed,” although to this day it deviates from the vertical by 55 cm. At the same time, the Gothic spire, similar to the crown of St. Mary’s Church, was replaced with a Baroque helmet. The town hall and its tower served a variety of functions. In the dungeons of the town hall there was a prison with torture chambers, and behind the wall in the basement of the tower there was a tavern, where wine and beer from Świdnica flowed like a river, where songs of not always decent content were sung, and drunken visitors dared to scold the city order and even the king himself. For this, Kazimir Jagiellon closed the tavern for 45 years. The town hall was carefully guarded, not only because of the villains imprisoned in the dungeon, but also because of the city treasury, which was stored on the first floor of the town hall. The finances of the city were in charge of 3 treasurers, who had access to a chest of money, locked with 3 locks. Only by gathering together could they open the chest. Thus, the very thought of financial abuse was suppressed. Below in the tower there was a guard room and a weapons warehouse. On the 2nd tier there was a chapel, and even higher - a belfry.
Houses and legends of the Main Market.
The ancient houses located along the perimeter of the square were built back in the 13th-14th centuries. Since then, they have lost their Gothic decoration and acquired Renaissance attics, or even even baroque or classical facades. In the 17th and 18th centuries, many bourgeois houses were rebuilt into palaces of wealthy gentry. For a Polish nobleman, a city dweller's house seemed unbearably cramped. The tycoon bought 2-3 houses in a row from impoverished townspeople, rebuilt them in accordance with fashion and, as a result, received a city palace. An example of such a magnate palace is the so-called “House of the Prelate,” rebuilt by Polish architects at the beginning of the 17th century from 2 burgher houses.
The houses around the Main Market still bear medieval names: “Under the Rams”, “Under the Lamb”, “Under the Muzhins (Negroes)”.
The house “Under the Rams” received its nickname from the Gothic house sign preserved above the gate. Since the 16th century, this palace belonged to famous Polish nobles: the Ostrogskys, the Radziwills, the Pototskys. Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, who fled abroad from the wrath of his father, Sovereign Peter I, stayed in the house “Under the Rams.” And 100 years later, Prince Jozef Poniatowski stayed there. Next to the palace “Under the Rams” there is a more modest house called “Under the Lamb”. The famous Italian sculptor Santi Gucci, who worked a lot in Krakow, lived there. In the photo, the palace is on the left, and the narrow green house “Under the Lamb” is in the center. On the right, the “House under the Copper Sheets” came into the frame, which received its nickname because its roof was covered with copper for the first time in Krakow.
And in the Spissky Palace, even before it was rebuilt in the 18th century, lived the legendary warlock and alchemist Pyotr Tvardovsky. One day, Pan Tvardovsky met the devil himself and, without hesitation, sold his soul to him, sealing the deal with his own signature in blood taken from the “heart” finger of his hand. By order of Twardowski, the evil spirit carved a cave for the alchemist in the foothills, collected deposits of silver from all over Poland and deposited them near Krakow in Olkusz. Near the Sand Rock, he turned over a huge rock and strengthened it with its sharp end downwards. This rock is called the “Club of Hercules” and we will see it again. Tvardovsky himself made full use of evil spirits: he flew without wings, rode a wooden horse, sailed on a boat without oars or sails. He set out on a long journey riding on a rooster, which raced faster than the fastest horse. The alchemist master had a wife who sold pots at this very market. She was as pretty as she was grumpy, and the devil himself was so afraid of her that he ran away wherever he could. However, in the end, the evil one nevertheless showed up for Tvardovsky to drag him into hell. Back in the 18th century. in the city they showed a house riddled with cracks with a huge hole instead of a window. It served as irrefutable proof that it was from here that the devil dragged Pan Tvardovsky to the underworld. But this is not the end: Pan Tvardovsky was not at a loss, sang a Christmas song and was thrown... to the moon. From there he observes life in his native Krakow, and when he gets bored without news, he sends down a little spider on a silver thread.
The oldest house on the square is the so-called Shara (Gray) Kamenica. She is over 600 years old. Once a cook, who served one of the Krakow alchemists, got lost in her cellars. She got there by catching a rooster that did not want to get into the soup. Of course, it was the devil himself, who royally thanked the cook for saving her by pouring her an apron full of gold. The unclean one showed her the way to the exit and ordered her to walk without looking back until she got out of the dungeon. Of course, the cook could not resist and looked back at the very last step. The door to the basement slammed shut, tearing off her heel, and the damn gold immediately turned into trash.
There are always a lot of pigeons in the square, but residents do not chase them away and do not allow tourists to do so. After all, these are not pigeons, but enchanted knights. Here's what the legend says about it: in the 13th century, Prince Henryk IV ascended the Krakow throne, wanting to unite the Polish lands and become king. He began to prepare for a trip to Rome, because only the Pope could give him the royal crown. However, he did not have money for such a long journey - Henrik spent it on arming the army, with the help of which he had already united many lands. The prince turned to the witch for advice and she promised to help him, but set a condition: she would turn his faithful squad into pigeons, they would carry pebbles to the square all night and by morning the stones would turn into gold. But the faithful knights will only regain human form when their master returns with the crown. After consulting with his soldiers, the prince agreed. Having collected the received gold into chests, Henryk moved to Rome. But he never made it to Rome; he stayed for a long time in Venice. Several knights turned into pigeons flew there to him, and from them, they say, the pigeons from St. Mark's Square originate. In 1289, Henryk returned to Krakow... without a crown. Until his death, he did not dare to appear on the Market and look into the eyes of his faithful squad. He died the next year, probably poisoned. The knights never acquired human form; for 700 years now they have been flying as pigeons, peering at passers-by and looking for their prince, waiting for the witchcraft spell to subside.
In the next part we will go around the outskirts of the Market. In the meantime, you can look into or walk through.
Based on materials from the book by V.I. Savitskaya “Krakow” M, “Art”, 1975 and the brochure “Legends of Krakow” Wydawnictwo WAM, 2006
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The Market Square, or Main Market Square in Krakow, is one of the largest medieval squares in Europe.
It was built in 1257 and was very large for that time, but gradually acquired new buildings and blended into the urban landscape. The layout of the square has been preserved unchanged since the 13th century - it is a slightly irregular square with sides of 200 meters, from each side of which there are three streets leading to the entrance gates of Krakow. The buildings surrounding the square were erected in the 14th-15th centuries, but over time they were reconstructed more than once, so now we see facades in the classical style of the 17th-19th centuries, in which many architectural fragments of the Renaissance and Baroque era have been preserved: portals, ceilings, attics, galleries courtyards.
The market square became a trade center, where there was a place for artisans of various specialties: there was a salt row, coal, fish, grain, etc. In addition to its trading function, the square began to serve as a central square in the city; it more than once witnessed the most important historical events, even executions took place here. For example, here, after the coronation, the townspeople swore an oath to the king.
From the beginning of the 19th century, when the Austrian authorities came to the city, the market square became simply a decoration of the city. Only the renovated building of the Cloth Hall (Cloth Hall) and the town hall tower were left on the square. The facades of houses are being updated, the cemetery near St. Mary's Church is being cleaned.
Among the main current attractions of the square are the Sukiennice, the Town Hall Tower, the Church of St. Wojciech, the Zbaraski Palace, the Palace "Under the Rams", the monument to Adam Mickiewicz and, first of all, the St. Mary's Church.
Now the square and the surrounding streets are closed to traffic and have become a place for pedestrian walks. On the western part of the square there is the opportunity to ride in a carriage. Cafeterias, taverns and restaurants, museums and cultural institutions located on the Main Market, together with historical attractions, attract tourists from all over the world.
As in any medieval city, the center of Krakow was the market square - the Main Market. And here, on the Main Market Square, at the beginning of the 14th century, St. Mary’s Church grew up - the heart of the ancient city.
Its foundation was preceded by dramatic events. In 1241, having passed through the lands of Kievan Rus, the hordes of Batu’s Tatars fell upon them. was taken and destroyed, and the small Church of the Virgin Mary standing on the Main Market Square was completely destroyed by the Tatars. Tradition tells that the trumpeter-signalman, standing on the church tower, was the first to see the approach of the army of “filthy” (pagans) and sounded the alarm signal - “heinal”. But at that moment a Tatar arrow pierced his throat and the sound of the trumpet stopped.
Since then, every hour on the tower of the St. Mary's Church there appears a figure of a mechanical trumpeter who blows the “hejnal”, and the ancient signal again and again ends on the same note on which the life of the defender of Krakow ended. “Hejnal” of St. Mary’s Church became the call sign of the Krakow Astronomical Observatory as a signal of the exact time, and every day at twelve o’clock in the afternoon Polish radio broadcasts “hejnal” throughout the country.
What is true and what is not true in this legend is unknown, however, back in 1382, the city expense books of Krakow recorded a daily payment of eight pennies to the guard on the tower and another half a penny to the trumpeter, who was supposed to blow the “hejnal” in case of danger. And the clock with the figure of a blowing signalman appeared on the tower of St. Mary’s Church only many years later.
The oldest surviving part of St. Mary's Church - the main nave and the lower parts of the towers - dates back to the first half of the 14th century. The cathedral took almost a hundred years to build, throughout the 14th century. Another legend tells about the creation of the temple. The construction of the church towers was entrusted to two mason brothers. The elder, more experienced and dexterous, finished his tower, erected a spire over it and left for another city to build a new temple. Returning to Krakow, he saw that the second tower was still not completed. But she was built stronger and better - which means she will be taller than his tower! Overcome with envy and anger, the mason attacked his younger brother with a knife and killed him. But then he was tormented by remorse, and in despair he threw himself from the unfinished tower onto the stones of the market square.
This terrible story shocked the townspeople so much that the councilors of the city hall decided to erase from the town books the names of the brother builders who turned the holy work of building God's temple into a competition of their own pride. And for the edification of descendants, they decided to leave the unfinished tower as is, and only covered it with a roof.
Again, whether this is true or fiction is unknown; only of the two towers of the St. Mary’s Church, one is, indeed, noticeably lower than the other. And in the Cloth Hall - the medieval shopping arcade - the very knife with which brother killed brother is still kept... But in general, the ancient one with its thousand-year history is a city of legends. Anything could happen.
St. Mary's Church is an outstanding monument of Polish architecture of the Gothic era. Huge, directed upward, with its large northern tower it rises above the city to a height of more than sixty meters. It is crowned with a wooden tent with pointed turrets, exceptional in beauty and clarity of design. The height of the second, smaller southern tower is just over 40 meters. And the height of the main nave of St. Mary’s Church is 28 meters.
The oldest stained glass windows in the cathedral were made in 1370, but not all have survived. Some of the existing stained glass windows date back to the beginning of the 20th century and belong to the work of masters S. Wyspiansky and Y. Mehoffer. And the altar painting was done by one of the greatest Polish artists of the 19th century, Jan Matejko.
St. Mary's Church in Krakow is associated with the name of Wit Stwosz, a talented sculptor, painter and graphic artist. It was through his labors that the main shrines of the temple, the altar and the Crucifix, were created, which are among the most significant works of medieval European art.
Wit Stwosh lived a long life - he died at the age of ninety-three. Stwosch was born in South, in Nuremberg, but in 1447 he moved to and lived here for 22 years. Of these, for 12 years, from 1477 to 1489, he worked on the altar of the St. Mary's Church - the largest of the altars of medieval Europe, which became the main creation of the brilliant master and the greatest treasure of the St. Mary's Church. The three-leaf altar contains about 200 painted wooden figures, executed with extraordinary care.
The St. Mary's altar by Vit Stwosz consists of a central part and four wings. The central plot is the crowning of the Mother of God with the crown of the Lady of Heaven, and twelve scenes from her life are depicted on the wings. Vit Stwosh himself cut sculptures and altar details from linden wood, and painted them himself. His work is striking in its realism. There are no simplified schematic features characteristic of the art of the Middle Ages - all the details of the human body, proportions, movement are reproduced with scrupulous accuracy and, at the same time, spiritualized - they live.
During the fascist occupation of Krakow, the altar of St. Mary's Church was taken away and hidden by the fascists in the dungeons of Nornberg Castle. In 1946, it was discovered and after many years of restoration, it was returned to its original place - to the temple.
St. Mary's Church also houses another masterpiece of the Middle Ages - the sculpture “Pieta” (“Mourning of Christ”), dating back to 1410. The perfection with which this composition was executed allows some researchers to believe that its author was the mysterious “Master of Beautiful Madonnas” - a brilliant nameless sculptor who left behind several sculptural images of Madonnas of amazing perfection and beauty.
Like other Catholic churches, St. Mary's Church had many small altars and chapels. One of these chapels, in the name of St. Anthony, was popularly called the Chapel of Criminals - in it, according to tradition, the priest confessed before the execution of criminals sentenced to death, whose heads were then cut off -
right there, on the Main Market Square.
In the north-eastern part of the Market Square, the Town Hall Tower stands alone, and at one time the Market Square was closely built up: there was a Gothic Town Hall with a tower, a Renaissance-style barn for storing grain and a guardhouse. The town hall was built in the second half of the 13th century, and the construction of the tower was completed in 1383.
In past centuries, the Town Hall and its tower served a variety of functions. From the day the Town Hall was founded, its dungeons housed the Dorotka prison, in which the three darkest crypts were intended for torture. And next door, in the basement of the tower, ironically, there was a cheerful tavern “Świdnica”, where wine and beer flowed like a river...
The Town Hall was reliably guarded not only because of the criminals in it: on the first floor of the Lord's Hall the treasury of the rich city of Krakow was kept. The public finances, which were in charge of three treasurers, were kept in a chest called the cadula. The chest was locked with three different keys, and each treasurer had only one of them, so the treasurers could only open the chest at the same time. In the Lord's Hall, the Polish kings took the oath of citizenship of Krakow. Naturally, the Lord's Hall is the heart of the Town Hall: it was decorated with paintings and precious fabrics, and along the walls there were long benches lined with red morocco cushions.
This tower is especially revered by the Poles. Before her, the small Belarusian nobleman Thaddeus Kosciuszko swore allegiance to the Polish people.
