Florianska Street and Florianska Gate

Florianska Street

Undoubtedly one of the most famous streets of the city, starting at the Florian Gate and constituting the beginning of the Drogi Królewskiej (Floriańska - Rynek Główny - Grodzka - Wawel), along which the monarch's processions travelled for centuries. At its beginning, a wonderful view draws attention to the street, with the towers of St Mary's church (kościoł Mariacki) in the background. Of course, modern architecture does not have much in common with that which preceded it. Most of the tenement buildings were rebuilt in the nineteenth century, and today the street is primarily a shopping arcade. Above all it is worth paying attention to the former residence of the Kmita magnate family (No. 13), Pod Różą Hotel which is decorated with a Renaissance portal (No. 14), the Pharmacy Museum (No. 25) and the house of Jan Matejko, which now houses the National Museum (No. 41) . Here, too, is Jama Michalik - a famous pastry shop, besieged by the Bohemian artists of the Młodej Polski movement. Traces of the artists can still be found inside today in the form of original drawings, caricatures, and richly-decorated architectural scenes of Krakow. Floriańska is the quintessential contemporary Krakow, where it so easy to combine sightseeing with shopping, even in exclusive stores. In a ranking prepared in 2007 by the weekly "Wprost" it was in the third place amongst the most prestigious Polish streets.

Florianska Gate

the main city gate was founded at the end of the thirteenth century, and closes ul Floriańska from midnight. At the end of the fifteenth century, the brick floor of the stone cantilever machicoulis was built and combined with the Barbican gate neck (demolished in the mid-nineteenth century). Since that time, it has become a gateway to the city featuring on the Royal Route leading to Wawel. The baroque roof of the gate was installed in 1660 by councillor Jan Zaleski. In the passageway is a shrine to Our Lady of Piasek, which was moved from the neck connecting the gate of the Barbican. The balcony on the first floor and arcades on the side of the gate were made in 1840, designed by Karol Kremer. The Neo-Gothic openwork railing on the balcony comes from 1845. During the years 1885 to 1886, Wladyslaw Czartoryski erected a chapel upstairs designed by Wandalin Beringer. On the façade of the gate, from the Kleparz side is a Piast eagle sculpture, forged by the sculptor Zygmunt Langmana, and designed by Jan Matejko; from the ul. Florianska side there was an eighteenth-century Rococo relief of St. Florian. Fragments of the medieval city walls adjoin the gate.