History

A first brick building was erected in this place at the turn of the 13th century. The expansion phase began after the mid-14th century. It was when the house became a typical Kraków house preceded by a stoop. A shift in tastes and fashions led to the renovation of the interior at the turn of the 15th century. At that time, the east brick annexe was erected; from then on, it was affected by the subsequent development phases of the front building. In the 16th century, the building was in the hands of the Januszowicz family, merchants who ran a store in the Cloth Hall.  A thorough reconstruction of the main building was carried ou at the beginning of the 17th century. After the Januszowicz family, the house was owned by the silk trader Behm (1663), then the glazier Duszka (1736), the merchant Ulbricht (1772), and finally Joanna Starowiejska née Wolska. When her daughters, Symforoza and Antonina, chose to become nuns, her son, Jan Starowiejski Biberstein, the starost of Barwałd, became the only heir of the house in 1780.  In 1806 he sold it to Archbishop of Lviv Andrzej Alojzy Ankwicz. For centuries, the house was popular as a spice trade location, the most famous of the stores being run by Teofil Mikuszewski. Until the first quarter of the 19th century, the building was a two-storey structure. The addition of the third floor and changes to the façade took place after 1826. In his last will (he died in 1838), the archbishop bequeathed the house to Krystyna née Ankwicz, the wife of Count Kryspin Żeleński; however, she sold it immediately to the merchant Antoni Urasiński. The next owners were Teofil Seifert (1846),  Józef and Katarzyna Rapczyński (1864) and Ludwik Helcel and his nephews: Tadeusz, Władysław and Jadwiga Helcl. In the 1850s, a side annexe was raised according to the design of Teofil Wincenty Żebrawski. As part of that project, an arcaded passage was installed supported on cast-iron pillars. In 1883 the house was connected with the neighbouring building (Under the Horse house) and remodelled according to the design of Władysław Fiszer. The present-day classicist façade dates back to the second half of the 19th century and was designed by Antoni Siedek. The current façade was renewed in 1974, and the last routine renovation was carried out in 1991-1992.

Description

A four-level, three-axis house. The stone portal of the rear 16th-century annexe has been preserved. The 19-century equipment and decoration of the store interior have 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