History

The development of the plot started in the 14th century. In the following century, the front building was extended upwards by a second floor. Another level was added in the 16th century. Until 1545, the Morsztyn family were the owners, followed by the Wanzams until 1587 and Gutteters until 1595. In that time, the house was called “Brozikowska” after a burgher named Brozik who had allegedly purchased it from Jan Mornsztein in 1520. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the property was in the hands of Italian families. In 1602 the house hosted Tomasso Dolabella, an Italian painter, of great merit to the city of Kraków. A typical merchant house, repeatedly extended and transformed by successive owners. In the 17th century, the house was owned by Paweł Bruzik and from 1640 by Teodozjusz Śrubin. The latter offered the house Under the Carp to the Italian fraternity in his last will. The privilege was confirmed by King John III Sobieski in 1654. In the 18th century, the house was occupied by wealthy merchant families. The Italian Fraternity disposed of the house in favour of Francisco Toriani. The next owner was Franciszek de Friedensfield Laśkiewicz, one of the richest Kraków merchants. After his death in Brody in 1778, when his property was divided among heirs, the house fell to his daughter Rozalia, the wife of Franciszek Antoni Wolf de Wolfsthal, a Kraków banker. After her father, Franciszka Lebowska née Wolf inherited the house in 1819 and sold it in 1821 for 38,000 Polish złotys to Maciej Rieger, a merchant from Brody and her grandfather’s business partner. The next owner was Maciej’s widow Klara, then Karol and Salomea Hess, and later their son Jan Kanty Hess. An interesting reminder of their cultural aspirations is the classicist wall paintings with the views of Krakóww from around 1830 by Jan Wincenty Kopff, Bacciarelli’s and Smuglewicz’s disciple and Dominik Estreicher’s nephew. In 1850 a fire consumed the annexes (reconstructed a year later). At the end of the 19th century, Józef Oettinger (1818-1895), a doctor, historian of medicine, and translator of Hippocrates, resided in the house. A thorough reconstruction of the house was performed in the 1870s. It was commissioned by the Hess family, according to the design by Jacek Matusiński. The designer transformed the commercial premises of the ground floor, re-shaped the roof, and refined the façade. During the works, many decorative details were removed. A baroque tiled stove survived and was moved to the National Museum in 1906. In the years 1907-1908, Bielaka Arcade was built, connecting the market square with ul. Stolarska. Some construction issues soon appeared. As a result, the interwar period, the ground floor was buttressed with a reinforced concrete structure in which large modernist windows were installed designed by Jerzy Struszkiewicz. At the turn of the 1950s, the house was renovated. In the years 1973-1975, during the construction project covering the so-called Bielak Arcade, the annexes were completely remodelled.

Description

A four-storey and three-axis façade with classicist decorations recreated in the 1960s. Last renovation on the façade was carried out in 2009. Only the ceiling and Renaissance and classicist polychromes on the first floor have survived from the old decorations and equipment. The name of the house alludes to a gilded carp bas-relief, once the emblem of the house. In the early 20th century, it was moved to the courtyard of the house at Rynek Główny 11. The gilded carp returned to its original place in 2002. 

The site is partly available: freely from the outside (including Bielak Arcade) but inside only during the working hours of the stores and institutions.

Author of the note Roman Marcinek, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 20/01/2016

Bibliography

• Dyba O., Kraków. Zabytki architektury i budownictwa, Warszawa 2007
• Encyklopedia Krakowa, Warszawa – Kraków 2000.
• Fabiański M., Purchla J., Historia architektury Krakowa w zarysie, Kraków 2001
• Komorowski W., Sudacka A., Rynek Główny w Krakowie, Ossolineum 2008
• Komorowski W., Pałace miejskie Krakowa 1. połowy XIX w., “Teki Krakowskie”, vol. XIII
• Rożek M., Przewodnik po zabytkach i kulturze Krakowa, Kraków 1993
• Marcinek R., Kraków, Kraków 2001