Cloth Hall and Adam Mickiewicz Monument

Cloth Hall

This historic building is located in the central part of the Market Square. Prince Boleslaw the Chaste, investing in the city in 1257, agreed to build the Cloth Hall - a place for trade fairs. This was the beginning of the street, after which continued market stalls on both sides. At night carts stopped here with commodity traders, and the exits were closed with bars. In this way, foreign merchants and their goods were assured a safe haven. These small stalls gradually formed the Cloth Hall building. Around the year 1300 an avenue of stalls were covered, and in the middle of the fourteenth century, King Kazimierz the Great expanded and modernized the building, creating a large three-aisle structure with a length of 108 metres and a width of 18 metres. This building survived in its Gothic form until 1555, when it burned down. It was restored very quickly, but in the Renaissance style, as only the beautiful Gothic gables and Gothic walls of the oblong were preserved. In the years 1875-1879, the Cloth Market Hall was rebuilt to a design by Tomasz Prylińskiego. The lower hall was converted into a string of wooden trading stalls, all spread along the walls. Gargoyles were placed on the tops of the projections, depicting a caricature of the then presidents of Krakow. Today in the Cloth Hall there are two rows of stalls, with mostly jewellery, souvenirs, handicraft or folklore items. An interesting fact is that during the German occupation, the image of the Cloth Hall was printed on 50zl banknotes issued by the Issuing Bank in Poland.

Adam Mickiewicz monument

popularly known as The Krakow "Adam", it is located in the main Rynek, by the Cloth Hall exit towards ul. Sienna. The monument, by Teodor Rygier, was ceremoniously unveiled on June 16, 1898 - the 100th anniversary of the birth of Adam Mickiewicz. The 10-metre monument represents the poet standing on a plinth at the foot of which there is a multi-stage pedestal, with four allegories: Homeland, Valour, Science and Poetry. A dedication has been placed on the pedestal: "Adam Mickiewicz's nation." On August 17, 1940, the monument was destroyed by the Nazis occupying the city. After the war it was reconstructed from parts found in 1946 in a scrap yard in Hamburg. The stone elements are made from Kośmin syenite, quarried in Piława Górna in Lower Silesia. The unveiling of the reconstruction took place on November 26, 1955, on the 100th anniversary of the bard's death. The statue is a favourite meeting place for Krakow residents and tourists, and is the centre of many celebrations, demonstrations, and other events. On the bard's name-day, December 24, Krakow florists lay flowers at the foot of the poet. Here, too, the annual Krakow nativity competition begins, Krakow fans celebrate the successes of their sports teams, and school leavers during their prom, hop around the pedestal, believing that the number of laps will help to determine their final exam grade.