The Kirchmajer’s house is the second largest residential building in Rynek Główny after Spiski Palace.

History

The present-day townhouse was built in the 19th century by combining two older buildings near the market square. From the west, there used to be the Bełzowska house, possibly erected even before the year 1300. It was extended and rebuilt in each subsequent century, starting from the 1500s. From 1468 the Bełz family owned iron and cloth stalls in Kraków and even had their own chapel in St Mary’s Basilica (St John the Baptist’s). The adjacent Bethmanowska house was built in the mid-14th century. In the 16th century, it belonged to the Bethman family and was called Under the Cut Head (due to the façade painting of the head of St John the Baptist). The famous Wieliczka salt mine manager, Seweryn Bethman, lived here. He was credited with saving the mine from destruction by extinguishing an underground fire. King Stephen Bathory and Anna Jagiellonka watched a performance staged on the occasion of Jan Zamoyski’s wedding from the house’s windows. The brick rear annexe of the 15th century was renovated in the 16th and 17th centuries. Enlarged by successive merchant families, it housed a pharmacy, a spice store, and a pharmaceutical laboratory. In 1818 the façade received a new face. In 1833 the two houses were purchased by the industrialist Wincenty Antoni Kirchmajer, one of the richest citizens of the Free City of Kraków. In 1834 he merged the two buildings, which was a prelude to thorough reconstruction in the years 1840-1841. As a result, also owing to the conversion of the annexes, the first “business house” was established in Kraków, i.e. a place resembling a modern office building and accommodating the owner’s residence. It housed an exchange office, bank, shops, rented apartments, and elegant guest apartments. Some of the most outstanding guests were Tsar Nicholas I and Russian Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich (1849). The impressive façade was decorated with a large-sized bas-relief in the attic, “something between a fancy shop sign and the apotheosis of the life of a politician, merchant, industrialist, and banker.” The family apartments occupied two floors: the father, Wincenty Antoni, lived on the first floor and his son Wincenty on the second floor. The family also kept a valuable collection of paintings, engravings (by Guido Reni, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Antoine Watteau), and handicrafts. Kirchmajer’s house was not a palace in the strict sense, however it was comparable to aristocratic residences as it realised a largely residential programme as an expression of the aspirations of “a merchant and banker who gravitates towards the landed gentry and aristocratic circles.” After the violent bankruptcy of Kirchmayer in 1875, the offices and the seat of Mayor of Kraków Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz were installed on the first floor. In the 20th century, the house was renovated in 1933, 1941 and 1954; the ground floor was converted in 1984.

Description

A five-storey, six-axis building dominating the frontage of Rynek Główny. The interiors of the front buildings and annexes were combined to create spacious apartments, including rented ones, and offices accessible from a grand three-flight staircase. However, these transformations were not thorough enough to obscure the layout of the mediaeval buildings, hence the absence of enfilade of rooms of equal size and of a symmetrically arranged layout with a living room in the middle. Full integration was achieved in the façade, mainly through the symmetrical arrangement of the windows, which, together with the framing, determine the ultimate look of the composition. The vertical arrangement of the window axes is balanced by boldly protruding entablature, a prominent crown cornice and an attic wall. The façade features a stone emblem of the 15th century: the head of St John on a bowl supported by two angels.

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