The name comes from the red color of the façade before 1850.

History

The first brick building was erected in the second half of the 14th century and was expanded later on in the following century. It took the shape of a two-level edifice with a porch. In the first half of the 16th century, the house belonged to the Brendler family and in the third quarter of the 16th century to Erazm Wanzam. At the time,  the front building was upgraded to the Renaissance style and a one-level rear annexe was added. From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the last quarter of the 17th century, the property was owned by the Wizembergs. Before 1621 it was home to the devout Barbara Langówna. She was the first private person allowed to own a private chapel at home. It has a Gothic cross that is now exhibited in the altar of the Church of St Barbara). During the ownership of the Wizembergs, minor alterations were made. Successive owners, the Morsztyn family, made more profound changes at the end of the century. They completely transformed the front part of the building (e.g. they commissioned wall and ceiling paintings, some of which have survived to this day) and added the second floor of the annexe. Until 1736 the house belonged to Anna Sapieżyna, the voivode of Trakai, and then to the local bourgeois Nowicki family, the merchant Jan Ulrich and his heirs. In the late 18th and early 19th century, a popular confectionery store operated in the house. Before 1827 the building went through a classicist alteration. The hallway was adapted in 1865. It pre-dated a reconstruction begun in 1867 by the merchant Antoni Czerny according to Teofil Zamojski’s design. In 1876 Antoni Hawełka opened his Under the Palm store here, later run by the company manager Franciszek Macharski. On the ground floor, behind the store, there was a well-known Kraków restaurant. The roof was repaired in 1882. After 1935, another renovation was carried out. The annexes were reduced to the height of the first floor due to their poor condition.

Description

A four-level, three-axis townhouse with a well-preserved historic interior layout and partially preserved furnishings (Gothic portals, Renaissance ceilings, Baroque stucco). The Renaissance annexe with the original stonework has also survived.

The site is partly available: freely from the outside 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 20/04/2016

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
• Rożek M., Przewodnik po zabytkach i kulturze Krakowa, Kraków 1993
• Marcinek R., Kraków, Kraków 2001
• Żukow-Karczewski M., Pyszne piwo, dobra wódka i zakąska wesolutka, czyli krótki spacer śladem dawnych krakowskich “handelków”, “Gazeta Krakowska”, 30 IV - 3 V 1994, no. 100