History

The house was completed as a result of merging two mediaeval buildings. The so-called Fontanowska house, built in the early 14th century, occupied a small plot overlapping with a road; the relics of the mediaeval route have been preserved in the cellars. It used to be the narrowest house in the market square, each floor having only one room with two windows. In the 16th century, it belonged to a family from Como, Italy. One of the residents was Baltazar Fontana. After the Fontanas, the house was owned by the medical doctor and Kraków councillor Gabriel Ochocki. In 1700 the property belonged to the Gostkowskis and in 1718-1736 to Jerzy Treffer, a watchmaker. It was extended vertically and slightly upgraded in the first half of the 18th century. In the second half of the 18th century, the house was held by Sebastian Drelinkiewicz. At the beginning of the 19th century, his son Jan ran an antique shop offering books. In 1830 Jacek Drelinkiewicz sold the house “with smaller and smaller windows, partly boarded up, finished with a cymoid-shaped gable” to Henryk Dembiński. The other of the merged buildings was the Gutteterowska house. The first brick structure was built here in the second half of the 13th century. It was altered twice in the following century. In the 15th century, extra levels were added. In the same period, a brick side annexe was erected, sharing the development and ownership fate with the front building. At the beginning of the 16th century, the house was transformed into a palace-type residence designed by Galeazzo Guiciardini. The work was finished by Tomasso Ferrovere in 1557. The Gutteterowska house was owned by the noble German family of Gutteter, later using the Grzymała coat of arms. From 1624 to 1631, the house was occupied by Queen Constance of Austria during her stays in Kraków. After the Gutteters, in 1639, the residence was taken over by the Denhoffs, first Gaspar, the voivode of Sieradz (died 1645) and then his son Aleksander, the abbot of the Jędrzejów monastery (died 1671). After his death, the house was purchased by Zygmunt Hipolit, a town councillor of a wealthy family trading in cloth. In the 18th century, the house was owned by several related families (Dzianotti, Bartll, and Białecki). In 1792, the co-owners were Ignacy Białecki and Krzysztof Bartl and then, until 1826, Jakub Girtler and Tekla née Dzianotti Girtler. In 1826 they sold the house to the landowner Henryk Dembiński. General Henryk Dembiński, the commander of the November Uprising, moved into the house. In 1836 the houses were merged (the market square buildings were combined with a house in ul. Stolarska), and the whole complex was rebuilt and decorated with a uniform façade. The restored house was owned by Józef Wilkoszewski (1836), Joanna Raschowa née Bognar (1838), and finally Józef Haller (1843), the President of the Senate. The house burnt down in 1850; it was rebuilt no earlier than at the end of the century by Maciej Mączeński’s heirs. Next alteration was carried out around 1930. During WW2, a military sewing establishment operated here; after the war, a fashion house moved in. In the years 1995-2003, the house was converted into a shopping arcade (designed by Marcin Janowski). This is one of the most controversial projects within Rynek Główny in Kraków (see Rynek Główny 13).

Description

A huge, four-storey and six-axis building with a neo-Renaissance façade distorted through the last reconstruction. An example of unceremonious modification of historical monuments along the Royal Route (ahistorical window divisions or the ugly balcony in the piano nobile). The interior even accommodates an escalator. The former garden is gone; only the part used by the US consulate has remained. The most striking example of currency prevailing over tradition.

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
• Parki i ogrody Krakowa w obrębie Plant, ed. J. Bogdanowski, Warszawa 1997
• Rożek M., Przewodnik po zabytkach i kulturze Krakowa, Kraków 1993
• Marcinek R., Kraków, Kraków 2001